That’s the fascinating question that John D. O’Connor raises this morning: Durham Investigation Intrigue: Sergei Millian, an FBI Plant? It seems the forces weakening our country, to the delight of Vladimir Putin, come to a head in one Sergei Millian.
>>> JUST IN: Feds locate ‘alternative’ Mueller report mentioned by Andrew Weissmann in his book. Parts of the compendium could go public soon. First review should be done next month, feds say https://politi.co/3G1bJa2 #FOIA <<<
Behold: the "Omicron" variant of the Mueller report.
The timing of this revelation also suggests the possibility that Weissmann just found a target letter addressed to him inside his "Happy Holidays" card from Durham..
I suspect this alternative will be long on legal 'interpretation' and conclusions and short on new facts. Significantly, it's only focused on Manafort, rather than Trump. I agree this may be a ploy to try to slow Durham down.
I suspect this is true and Barr/Durham knew this. Downer's entry with info about PapaD meeting was fortuitous and unexpected, but the process to an FBI investigation being kicked off was already in motion. <<
It's what I've maintained all along--that Carter Page and the Dossier was the real predication and Downer was a bit of a smokescreen.
Here's the real bottom line, IMO. Even if you argue that the FBI was initially duped into CH--which I don't believe--nevertheless by the time the first CP FISA application was submitted they had reason to know that this was the Clinton Dossier--not any other kind. The involvement of Sussmann with Baker re Alfa, the memo from Brennan that landed on Strzok's desk--that was all clear reason to understand that this was political.
However, regardless of all that, by the time they interviewed Danchenko they knew it was all bogus for sure. And that means--and this again has been my contention--that Team Mueller--being by the terms of Rosenstein's memo a continuation of CH--had NO PREDICATION. Nor did any of the extensions of the FISA. Once you find out that you're investigation has no basis it becomes illegal. They should've dropped both Mueller and FISA like hot potatoes after talking to Danchenko, and turned to investigating what Durham is investigating now. And since they did neither, that tells you this was a conspiracy.
That bird in my ear again - “Think MASH episode with Colonel Flagg and Captain Pratt “A Smattering of Intelligence.
Now you have it. <<
In that episode, an officer who is actually CIA, shows up snooping around the 4077th. He's a heavyweight operative, so it gets G-2's attention, who sends in their own undercover operative to find out what CIA is up to.
Overlaid on this clue by SWC, is an observation from one of the Strzok in-basket text messages, in which someone refers to Bill (Preistap?) being in London on May 4th ....
Guessing: CIA up to something, which gets FBI's attention, and Preistap ends up in London trying to figure out what is going on. Or, the other way around?
Steele is not only in London, but Halper is nearby. So is MI-6, and GCHQ. Now recall a hastily set up conference with all sorts of diplomatic/spook types that Halper's assistant, Schrage, organizes, and I believe Carter Page is invited to? It's In MID-JULY, 2016 -- BEFORE CH is launched. Who tasked "the Walrus" to do that? If the FBI, why? They might pretend it's part of the ongoing investigation of Page, payback for revealing his role in helping catch the Russian spy. But that investigation was run out of NYFO, wasn't it?
People like Halper, and perhaps Mifsud, may be wearing more than one hat in this affair. Hence, the TWO Blackberries Mifsud's attorney reported turned over to Barr and Durham, which have galvanized my attention all these years.
If SWC's hint means what I suspect it means, it suggests we are about to find out about another "leg" of the Russian collusion hoax, possibly the the set-up side, perhaps run by another intel agency. And FBI may have sniffed it out, and sat on their hands.
Here's my belief, and it may help you with this. My assumption is that, just as Carter Page was a long time CIA asset who was turned over to the FBI, Halper and Mifsud were primarily CIA assets whom the CIA allowed the FBI to use for specific purposes. After all, if those two were interacting with MI6 and GCHQ, that interaction was the primary responsibility of CIA. FBI's counterpart in the UK Intel is MI5. CIA's counterpart is MI6. That doesn't mean that FBI never talks to MI6, but it means that FBI and CIA shouldn't be going behind each other's backs. Of course there's overlap--the FBI contacts all sorts of people who they suspect (from their profile) may be CIA assets. I'm quite positive they were not surprised to learn that CP was a CIA asset--they almost certainly expected that. But Halper and Mifsud were operating on an entirely different level, when you look at who they were interacting with in the UK. For that reason, I believe there had to be coordination in this situation, coordination between CIA and FBI.
My point is that "predication" might be different than what was put on paper for CH -- there might have been earlier predication, but that doesn't mean it was any better. <<
Well, he's not actually commenting on predication per se as saying that the travel is an indication that CH was opened as a Full Investigation, and THEREFORE there should have been well established predication--as I've discussed at great length. The problem is this: How can the predication be well established when we know it was all BS? This is why the back story re Page's cooperation with not just CIA but years with the FBI is important. That casts doubt, in my mind, on the notion that the FBI was fooled by Ohr and Steele and didn't get that this was a Clinton op. If, you argue, they were initially duped, two things work against that: the Sussmann meeting with Baker should have left no doubt, and Brennan's memo re Clinton that went to Strzok was explicit. I will admit that proving beyond a reasonable doubt that someone wasn't duped, that they weren't stupid, is tough. That's where the false statements and omissions from the FISA application become very important.
IOW, just because they opened a Full because they were duped, they could and should have closed it when they realized they had been duped. I don't really believe they were duped.
What we know already is the claim by FBI officials that they didn't know about the Dossier material until mid September is a lie, because Ohr met Steele on a late July Saturday morning for breakfast in DC, Steele passed the Dossier memos completed to that point in time (3 at most) to Ohr, and Ohr trotted them over to McCabe and L. Page sitting in McCabe's office that very morning. McCabe/Page passed them to Preistap/Stzrok.
I'm wondering if they knew about it earlier than that.
If Stzrok/McCabe/Baker or similar went off gallivanting to London (or who knows where) and met Steele (or a proxy for him) before the Downer's report was received, they have a big problem. One wonders what ostensible purpose the travel was "charged" to if it preceded the Downer report.
The total lack of curiosity on the part of FBI to independently verify who was paying for the Steele material, and the utter lack of curiosity to id his sources, and what their sources were, since it was all third hand hearsay, betokens the fact that they likely knew it was a Clinton Campaign op, and knew their careers would suffer, once Hillary was sworn in as POTUS. if they asked too many questions instead of accepting it on "face value."
The used the material to get the FISA on Carter Page, and only belatedly began "verifying" the info in January when the Trump admin was taking office. That's when Danchenko made it clear he claimed he was just passing along rumors and innuendo from an unnamed person in mysterious phone call, and gossip from his old drinking pals from Russia, which the FBI buried so they could continue renewing the C. Page FISA 2 more times.
And we also now know that none of Danchenko's "sources" back up Danchenko's story, as evidenced by the sworn depos denying they even discussed the Dossier material with Danchenko, collected by lawyers working for the Alfa Bank folks, and that Dolan -- the Clinton toady -- appears to be his real source of the most serious allegations Steele put in his memos.
I always thought the time between receipt of the Downer report and opening CH was too quick. Officially, PapaD wasn't even on their radar until the Downer report. It is as though the FBI knew things it officially had no way of knowing before the Downer report landed.
Which suggests somebody did could have done some traveling BEFORE the Downer Report landed at FBI. I wonder what they charge it to, the DNC "hack" investigation, perhaps; perfect cover for coordinating a Clinton Op generated investigation of the Trump Campaign, including overseas travel.
461 "The only express direction we found that McCabe gave regarding the use of a CHS
concerned a former FBI CHS, who contacted an FBI agent in an FBI field office in
late July 2016 to report information from "a colleague who runs an investigative firm ... hired by two entities (the Democratic National Committee [DNC] as well as another individual...[who was] not name[d]) to explore Donald Trump's longstanding ties to Russian entities." The former CHS also gave the FBI agent a list of "individuals and entities who have surfaced in [the investigative firm's] examination," which the former CHS described as "mostly public source material." In mid-September 2016, McCabe told SSA 1 to instruct the FBI agent from the field office not to have any further contact with the former CHS, and not to accept any information regarding the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. McCabe told the OIG he did not remember giving those instructions, and could not tell us why he might have done so. We found no evidence that the FBI reopened the former CHS for the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, or tasked the former CHS in connection with the Crossfire Hurricane investigation." <<
Think about that for a moment. A former FBI CHS, who was a "colleague of" Glenn Simpson who ran FusionGPS (most likely.)
Does that mean the former CHS is someone who runs an "investigative firm" similar to FusionGPS?
Behold:
>> Quote:
Simpson told investigators that Edward Baumgartner, who has a degree in Russian language and runs his own consulting firm similar to Fusion (but with a focus on Russia and Ukraine) worked on both projects.
Simpson said he had been impressed by Baumgartner's "knowledge of the region and his general abilities," which, for Fusion and Baker Hostetler, mostly involved discovery — gathering Russian language documents, reading media reports, and interviewing witnesses who speak Russian.
"I don't speak Russian, I've never been to Russia," Simpson said. "So it would be ordinary course of business for me to identify a specialist who could supply me with that kind of specialized expertise."
Baumgartner, who cofounded the UK-based intelligence consultancy Edward Austin in 2010, agreed with that characterization in an interview on Wednesday.
"What I do is not a particularly radical or novel skill in London," Baumgartner said, referring to the large number of Russians that live and work in the city. "In the US, though, we're actually quite rare."
Baumgartner, a fluent Russian speaker, said he was hired by Fusion to serve as "an interface" with Veselnitskaya, who does not speak much English. They worked "very closely" together in Washington and Moscow, Baumgartner said, reviewing documents and finding witnesses who could bolster Prevezon's case.
[snip]
"I was helping them on this other project, which was unrelated, and they mentioned it to me in July 2016," Baumgartner said, referring to the election-related research. "I was never made aware of Chris Steele's work or the dossier, and it was kept that way deliberately. I would have had nothing to add, anyway. I produce memos based on information that is in the public record that can be given to the feds or shared with journalists."
Baumgartner declined to speak in detail about the election-related work he did for Fusion. But he said his responsibilities involved, among other things, writing reports that compiled "everything publicly known" about Trump campaign associates like Carter Page and Manafort.
With regard to what Fusion told journalists about the research it had been doing throughout 2016, Simpson, like Baumgartner, said the firm discussed things with reporters that were already "in the public record." Specifically, he said, that included "open-source public information pointing towards the possibility that the Russians had infiltrated the Trump campaign."
"So we spoke broadly to reporters and encouraged them to look into this," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee."" <<
I think we may have the answer to who the mysterious former FBI CHS was, with whom McCabe forbade his handler to have any further contact in Sep 2016. He was the AUTHOR of much of the Dossier.
Now McCabe's sudden banishment of contact with him makes even more sense.
Yes, that looks like Simpson using Baumgartner to try to funnel info to the FBI to stimulate more investigative activity--and McCabe understanding who Baumgartner was and wanting to maintain distance from Fusion and Simpson.
It makes sense he'd be a former CHS, given all the contact he had with Russians in London; probably provided all manner of tittle-tattle he picked up in his day to day contacts.
Right. Like Millian he fits the profile of the type of person the FBI would want to maintain contact with. Believe me--I spent 22 years thinking in those terms.
On January 20, 2017, after the Trump victory, lowly Trump aide George Papadopoulos met with Millian and his “good-time-Charlie” friend, who blurted out, “Sergei works for the FBI.”
Like Page, I wouldn't be surprised to see that they had a FISA open on PapaD as well. Between the 30k offer made and the 10k cash handed to him in Cypress the knives were out and they would have been able to bring that type of work home to the US without getting into the courts.
Papa was incredibly naive but lucky in the sense that the characters thrown at him were so cartoonish. His paranoia and gut were well placed and valid, else he would have been another Manafort.
I've seen this, experienced this and lived this first hand. It's not a fun place to be in life when you have to start questioning every contact you have and email you send. It destroys your family life, it destroys your professional reputation, it ruins long term friendships, trashes your finances, it messes up your mind and leaves you in a state that's wholly messed up for years afterwards! The really bad part is you can never really understand what "was" or "was not", you're just left trying to grasp at straws.
Whatever Durham does, it will never be enough to properly touch the thousands that were involved in this mess.
A general, non - specific comment: knowing how accurate and effective the Hans Mahnke/Fool Nelson/Stephen McIntyre group have been, and knowing that they believe Sergei to an entirely innocent character - I remain unconvinced here.
Exactly my thoughts. I can't find any official document memorializing Millian's interaction with PapaD. That's why I have to wonder if PapaD did meet with someone, perhaps it was a faux Millian, setting PapaD up.
Recall that Millian's org's website was briefly hijacked as part of the Alfa Bank hoax. People who can do that can also spoof his email address, IMHO.
Lest we forget Gen. Flynn had to know his conversations with Kislyak were being surveilled. 0bama laid that honeypot trap as soon as he told the incoming President, DO NOT HIRE FLYNN. https://archive.md/sZGF9
I’ve long had similar thoughts about Carter Page—once CIA always CIA. He and Millian have long protested their innocence and all the big revelations to mock the RussiaGate conspirators and claim vindication while promising lawsuits galore. But so far only Page has brought suit, and one so broad, with a defendant list so voluminous it will most certainly get thrown out on some sovereign immunity theory. Also notice that neither Page or Millian offer information about the attempts to set them up until after it becomes public. And they’re the only ones who we know of who talked to the Crossfire Hurricane or Mueller Teams without lawyers or fear of a perjury trap.
I read this article earlier this morning. O'Connor's summary is good because it is entirely believable and plausible. Now, how much of what O'Connor conjectures does Durham already know and is pursuing?
Another aspect of O'Connor's article is that the lid is coming off the FBI/DOJ/Mueller corruption pot. Those who may be in the crosshairs of Durham that are reading this must be musing at how much of their scheme is being uncovered and brought to light while depending on The Swamp to protect them from any consequences from their actions.
Breaking:
>> https://twitter.com/Pimpernell13/status/1466618078788153350 <<
>>> JUST IN: Feds locate ‘alternative’ Mueller report mentioned by Andrew Weissmann in his book. Parts of the compendium could go public soon. First review should be done next month, feds say https://politi.co/3G1bJa2 #FOIA <<<
Behold: the "Omicron" variant of the Mueller report.
The timing of this revelation also suggests the possibility that Weissmann just found a target letter addressed to him inside his "Happy Holidays" card from Durham..
Now that would be a wonderful Christmas present.
I suspect this alternative will be long on legal 'interpretation' and conclusions and short on new facts. Significantly, it's only focused on Manafort, rather than Trump. I agree this may be a ploy to try to slow Durham down.
Heads up:
>> https://twitter.com/shipwreckedcrew/status/1465154969141530628 <<
SWC comment on CH predication.
THIS:
>> Dr. Shipwreckedcrew.substack.com
@shipwreckedcrew
I suspect this is true and Barr/Durham knew this. Downer's entry with info about PapaD meeting was fortuitous and unexpected, but the process to an FBI investigation being kicked off was already in motion. <<
>> https://twitter.com/shipwreckedcrew/status/1465354957662478339 <<
The last half of the sentence fits into what I posted a few minutes ago.
It's what I've maintained all along--that Carter Page and the Dossier was the real predication and Downer was a bit of a smokescreen.
Here's the real bottom line, IMO. Even if you argue that the FBI was initially duped into CH--which I don't believe--nevertheless by the time the first CP FISA application was submitted they had reason to know that this was the Clinton Dossier--not any other kind. The involvement of Sussmann with Baker re Alfa, the memo from Brennan that landed on Strzok's desk--that was all clear reason to understand that this was political.
However, regardless of all that, by the time they interviewed Danchenko they knew it was all bogus for sure. And that means--and this again has been my contention--that Team Mueller--being by the terms of Rosenstein's memo a continuation of CH--had NO PREDICATION. Nor did any of the extensions of the FISA. Once you find out that you're investigation has no basis it becomes illegal. They should've dropped both Mueller and FISA like hot potatoes after talking to Danchenko, and turned to investigating what Durham is investigating now. And since they did neither, that tells you this was a conspiracy.
Intriguing hint from SWC:
>> https://twitter.com/shipwreckedcrew/status/1465390447400914948 <<
>> Dr. Shipwreckedcrew.substack.com
@shipwreckedcrew
They all need approval.
That bird in my ear again - “Think MASH episode with Colonel Flagg and Captain Pratt “A Smattering of Intelligence.
Now you have it. <<
In that episode, an officer who is actually CIA, shows up snooping around the 4077th. He's a heavyweight operative, so it gets G-2's attention, who sends in their own undercover operative to find out what CIA is up to.
Overlaid on this clue by SWC, is an observation from one of the Strzok in-basket text messages, in which someone refers to Bill (Preistap?) being in London on May 4th ....
>> https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FFYPaRpVkAAw4mZ?format=jpg&name=4096x4096 <<
Guessing: CIA up to something, which gets FBI's attention, and Preistap ends up in London trying to figure out what is going on. Or, the other way around?
Steele is not only in London, but Halper is nearby. So is MI-6, and GCHQ. Now recall a hastily set up conference with all sorts of diplomatic/spook types that Halper's assistant, Schrage, organizes, and I believe Carter Page is invited to? It's In MID-JULY, 2016 -- BEFORE CH is launched. Who tasked "the Walrus" to do that? If the FBI, why? They might pretend it's part of the ongoing investigation of Page, payback for revealing his role in helping catch the Russian spy. But that investigation was run out of NYFO, wasn't it?
People like Halper, and perhaps Mifsud, may be wearing more than one hat in this affair. Hence, the TWO Blackberries Mifsud's attorney reported turned over to Barr and Durham, which have galvanized my attention all these years.
If SWC's hint means what I suspect it means, it suggests we are about to find out about another "leg" of the Russian collusion hoax, possibly the the set-up side, perhaps run by another intel agency. And FBI may have sniffed it out, and sat on their hands.
Here's my belief, and it may help you with this. My assumption is that, just as Carter Page was a long time CIA asset who was turned over to the FBI, Halper and Mifsud were primarily CIA assets whom the CIA allowed the FBI to use for specific purposes. After all, if those two were interacting with MI6 and GCHQ, that interaction was the primary responsibility of CIA. FBI's counterpart in the UK Intel is MI5. CIA's counterpart is MI6. That doesn't mean that FBI never talks to MI6, but it means that FBI and CIA shouldn't be going behind each other's backs. Of course there's overlap--the FBI contacts all sorts of people who they suspect (from their profile) may be CIA assets. I'm quite positive they were not surprised to learn that CP was a CIA asset--they almost certainly expected that. But Halper and Mifsud were operating on an entirely different level, when you look at who they were interacting with in the UK. For that reason, I believe there had to be coordination in this situation, coordination between CIA and FBI.
SWC clarifies his tweet from last night:
>> https://twitter.com/shipwreckedcrew/status/1465158391731425280 <<
>> Dr. Shipwreckedcrew.substack.com
@shipwreckedcrew
My point is that "predication" might be different than what was put on paper for CH -- there might have been earlier predication, but that doesn't mean it was any better. <<
Well, he's not actually commenting on predication per se as saying that the travel is an indication that CH was opened as a Full Investigation, and THEREFORE there should have been well established predication--as I've discussed at great length. The problem is this: How can the predication be well established when we know it was all BS? This is why the back story re Page's cooperation with not just CIA but years with the FBI is important. That casts doubt, in my mind, on the notion that the FBI was fooled by Ohr and Steele and didn't get that this was a Clinton op. If, you argue, they were initially duped, two things work against that: the Sussmann meeting with Baker should have left no doubt, and Brennan's memo re Clinton that went to Strzok was explicit. I will admit that proving beyond a reasonable doubt that someone wasn't duped, that they weren't stupid, is tough. That's where the false statements and omissions from the FISA application become very important.
IOW, just because they opened a Full because they were duped, they could and should have closed it when they realized they had been duped. I don't really believe they were duped.
Agreed.
What we know already is the claim by FBI officials that they didn't know about the Dossier material until mid September is a lie, because Ohr met Steele on a late July Saturday morning for breakfast in DC, Steele passed the Dossier memos completed to that point in time (3 at most) to Ohr, and Ohr trotted them over to McCabe and L. Page sitting in McCabe's office that very morning. McCabe/Page passed them to Preistap/Stzrok.
I'm wondering if they knew about it earlier than that.
If Stzrok/McCabe/Baker or similar went off gallivanting to London (or who knows where) and met Steele (or a proxy for him) before the Downer's report was received, they have a big problem. One wonders what ostensible purpose the travel was "charged" to if it preceded the Downer report.
The total lack of curiosity on the part of FBI to independently verify who was paying for the Steele material, and the utter lack of curiosity to id his sources, and what their sources were, since it was all third hand hearsay, betokens the fact that they likely knew it was a Clinton Campaign op, and knew their careers would suffer, once Hillary was sworn in as POTUS. if they asked too many questions instead of accepting it on "face value."
The used the material to get the FISA on Carter Page, and only belatedly began "verifying" the info in January when the Trump admin was taking office. That's when Danchenko made it clear he claimed he was just passing along rumors and innuendo from an unnamed person in mysterious phone call, and gossip from his old drinking pals from Russia, which the FBI buried so they could continue renewing the C. Page FISA 2 more times.
And we also now know that none of Danchenko's "sources" back up Danchenko's story, as evidenced by the sworn depos denying they even discussed the Dossier material with Danchenko, collected by lawyers working for the Alfa Bank folks, and that Dolan -- the Clinton toady -- appears to be his real source of the most serious allegations Steele put in his memos.
I always thought the time between receipt of the Downer report and opening CH was too quick. Officially, PapaD wasn't even on their radar until the Downer report. It is as though the FBI knew things it officially had no way of knowing before the Downer report landed.
Which suggests somebody did could have done some traveling BEFORE the Downer Report landed at FBI. I wonder what they charge it to, the DNC "hack" investigation, perhaps; perfect cover for coordinating a Clinton Op generated investigation of the Trump Campaign, including overseas travel.
Extremely useful Russia Collusion Hoax research tool:
>> https://linktr.ee/RyanM58699717 <<
Links to various important docs.
Tx
A side issue:
From the Horowitz Report:
>> Quote:
461 "The only express direction we found that McCabe gave regarding the use of a CHS
concerned a former FBI CHS, who contacted an FBI agent in an FBI field office in
late July 2016 to report information from "a colleague who runs an investigative firm ... hired by two entities (the Democratic National Committee [DNC] as well as another individual...[who was] not name[d]) to explore Donald Trump's longstanding ties to Russian entities." The former CHS also gave the FBI agent a list of "individuals and entities who have surfaced in [the investigative firm's] examination," which the former CHS described as "mostly public source material." In mid-September 2016, McCabe told SSA 1 to instruct the FBI agent from the field office not to have any further contact with the former CHS, and not to accept any information regarding the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. McCabe told the OIG he did not remember giving those instructions, and could not tell us why he might have done so. We found no evidence that the FBI reopened the former CHS for the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, or tasked the former CHS in connection with the Crossfire Hurricane investigation." <<
Think about that for a moment. A former FBI CHS, who was a "colleague of" Glenn Simpson who ran FusionGPS (most likely.)
Does that mean the former CHS is someone who runs an "investigative firm" similar to FusionGPS?
Behold:
>> Quote:
Simpson told investigators that Edward Baumgartner, who has a degree in Russian language and runs his own consulting firm similar to Fusion (but with a focus on Russia and Ukraine) worked on both projects.
Simpson said he had been impressed by Baumgartner's "knowledge of the region and his general abilities," which, for Fusion and Baker Hostetler, mostly involved discovery — gathering Russian language documents, reading media reports, and interviewing witnesses who speak Russian.
"I don't speak Russian, I've never been to Russia," Simpson said. "So it would be ordinary course of business for me to identify a specialist who could supply me with that kind of specialized expertise."
Baumgartner, who cofounded the UK-based intelligence consultancy Edward Austin in 2010, agreed with that characterization in an interview on Wednesday.
"What I do is not a particularly radical or novel skill in London," Baumgartner said, referring to the large number of Russians that live and work in the city. "In the US, though, we're actually quite rare."
Baumgartner, a fluent Russian speaker, said he was hired by Fusion to serve as "an interface" with Veselnitskaya, who does not speak much English. They worked "very closely" together in Washington and Moscow, Baumgartner said, reviewing documents and finding witnesses who could bolster Prevezon's case.
[snip]
"I was helping them on this other project, which was unrelated, and they mentioned it to me in July 2016," Baumgartner said, referring to the election-related research. "I was never made aware of Chris Steele's work or the dossier, and it was kept that way deliberately. I would have had nothing to add, anyway. I produce memos based on information that is in the public record that can be given to the feds or shared with journalists."
Baumgartner declined to speak in detail about the election-related work he did for Fusion. But he said his responsibilities involved, among other things, writing reports that compiled "everything publicly known" about Trump campaign associates like Carter Page and Manafort.
With regard to what Fusion told journalists about the research it had been doing throughout 2016, Simpson, like Baumgartner, said the firm discussed things with reporters that were already "in the public record." Specifically, he said, that included "open-source public information pointing towards the possibility that the Russians had infiltrated the Trump campaign."
"So we spoke broadly to reporters and encouraged them to look into this," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee."" <<
>> https://www.businessinsider.com/ed-baumgartner-fusion-gps-christopher-steele-russia-projects-2018-1 <<
I think we may have the answer to who the mysterious former FBI CHS was, with whom McCabe forbade his handler to have any further contact in Sep 2016. He was the AUTHOR of much of the Dossier.
Now McCabe's sudden banishment of contact with him makes even more sense.
Yes, that looks like Simpson using Baumgartner to try to funnel info to the FBI to stimulate more investigative activity--and McCabe understanding who Baumgartner was and wanting to maintain distance from Fusion and Simpson.
Has Baumgartner been previously ID'd as the "former CHS," or am I breaking new ground here?
Sorry, I don't know. I know at one point I tried to find out more about him but didn't learn much.
It makes sense he'd be a former CHS, given all the contact he had with Russians in London; probably provided all manner of tittle-tattle he picked up in his day to day contacts.
Right. Like Millian he fits the profile of the type of person the FBI would want to maintain contact with. Believe me--I spent 22 years thinking in those terms.
Who was the “good time Charlie”?
From O’Connor’s article.
On January 20, 2017, after the Trump victory, lowly Trump aide George Papadopoulos met with Millian and his “good-time-Charlie” friend, who blurted out, “Sergei works for the FBI.”
Like Page, I wouldn't be surprised to see that they had a FISA open on PapaD as well. Between the 30k offer made and the 10k cash handed to him in Cypress the knives were out and they would have been able to bring that type of work home to the US without getting into the courts.
Papa was incredibly naive but lucky in the sense that the characters thrown at him were so cartoonish. His paranoia and gut were well placed and valid, else he would have been another Manafort.
I've seen this, experienced this and lived this first hand. It's not a fun place to be in life when you have to start questioning every contact you have and email you send. It destroys your family life, it destroys your professional reputation, it ruins long term friendships, trashes your finances, it messes up your mind and leaves you in a state that's wholly messed up for years afterwards! The really bad part is you can never really understand what "was" or "was not", you're just left trying to grasp at straws.
Whatever Durham does, it will never be enough to properly touch the thousands that were involved in this mess.
A general, non - specific comment: knowing how accurate and effective the Hans Mahnke/Fool Nelson/Stephen McIntyre group have been, and knowing that they believe Sergei to an entirely innocent character - I remain unconvinced here.
Exactly my thoughts. I can't find any official document memorializing Millian's interaction with PapaD. That's why I have to wonder if PapaD did meet with someone, perhaps it was a faux Millian, setting PapaD up.
Recall that Millian's org's website was briefly hijacked as part of the Alfa Bank hoax. People who can do that can also spoof his email address, IMHO.
Do we know for a fact that the real Sergei Millian made this offer to PapaD?
Or is it possible a fake Sergei Millian approached PapaD with the enticing offer?
How would PapaD know who Sergei Millian was in October 2016?
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sergei+millian+met+with+george+papadopoulos&ia=web
Lest we forget Gen. Flynn had to know his conversations with Kislyak were being surveilled. 0bama laid that honeypot trap as soon as he told the incoming President, DO NOT HIRE FLYNN. https://archive.md/sZGF9
I’ve long had similar thoughts about Carter Page—once CIA always CIA. He and Millian have long protested their innocence and all the big revelations to mock the RussiaGate conspirators and claim vindication while promising lawsuits galore. But so far only Page has brought suit, and one so broad, with a defendant list so voluminous it will most certainly get thrown out on some sovereign immunity theory. Also notice that neither Page or Millian offer information about the attempts to set them up until after it becomes public. And they’re the only ones who we know of who talked to the Crossfire Hurricane or Mueller Teams without lawyers or fear of a perjury trap.
I read this article earlier this morning. O'Connor's summary is good because it is entirely believable and plausible. Now, how much of what O'Connor conjectures does Durham already know and is pursuing?
Another aspect of O'Connor's article is that the lid is coming off the FBI/DOJ/Mueller corruption pot. Those who may be in the crosshairs of Durham that are reading this must be musing at how much of their scheme is being uncovered and brought to light while depending on The Swamp to protect them from any consequences from their actions.
"the lid is coming off"
I think more and more people are coming to that realization.