Did the FBI verify the Trump dossier? It’s a question that then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe refused to answer. The dossier is the piece of political opposition research compiled by former MI6 spook Christopher Steele that the Clinton campaign and the Democrats bankrolled. The intention was to find dirt on Trump. It was reportedly used as credible evidence to secure a FISA spy warrant on Carter Page, who briefly served as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. This FISA warrant was renewed at least three times from 2016 up until 2017. Was it verified? Given these glaring errors in the document itself, probably not. In fact, these errors could easily have been debunked by a simple Google search. First, let's go to why this whole affair—Spygate—just got worse for the FBI/DOJ. Well, there’s a new actor involved now, the State Department, because officials there seem to have known that the Trump dossier was a biased document compiled for political purposes days before the FISA warrant was issued for Page. Steele was quite adamant that the contents of this document had to be known prior to Election Day 2016 in order the race. John Solomon at The Hill has more:
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec’s written account of her Oct. 11, 2016, meeting with FBI informant Christopher Steele shows the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded British intelligence operative admitted that his research was political and facing an Election Day deadline.
And that confession occurred 10 days before the FBI used Steele’s now-discredited dossier to justify securing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA warrant to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and the campaign’s ties to Russia.
Steele’s client “is keen to see this information come to light prior to November 8,” the date of the 2016 election, Kavalec wrote in a typed summary of her meeting with Steele and Tatyana Duran, a colleague from Steele’s Orbis Security firm. The memos were unearthed a few days ago through open-records litigation by the conservative group Citizens United.
Okay, so onto the ‘did the FBI do any due diligence with this dossier’ side of the story. WMAL’s Larry O’Connor and the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway shared a lengthy Twitter thread by John W. Huber, which pretty much shows that it’s a safe bet that no verification process was taken at the FBI. Some of the sources in the dossier claim there was a Russian consulate in Miami, which served as a base for hacking operations. At the time, there was no Russian consulate in Miami. It was in Tampa and in the same building as the Commerce Department. This source also said the infamous pee tapes with Trump and escorts existed. They don’t.
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The point is, which this thread makes clear, is that the FBI should’ve known this document’s authenticity was suspect when this source cited areas where Russian interests were being carried out that didn’t exist. Huber aptly noted, “If they're wrong about ‘Miami’ what *else* are they wrong about?”
EXCLUSIVE: The "Steele" dossier source who falsely claimed there was a Russian Consulate in Miami was ALSO was a source for the Moscow “pee tape” AND **the key source** alleging an “extensive conspiracy” between the Trump campaign & Russia involving Manafort and Page ??
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
THREAD
Christopher Steele tells State Dept. Official Kathleen Kavalec on Oct 11 2016 that a "human/technical operation run out of Moscow targeting the election" is "hacking" and "recruiting" and "payments to those recruited are made out of the Russian Consulate in Miami" pic.twitter.com/RXWYCcEHzU
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
Kavalec (likely after a cursory search) says "It is important to note there is no Russian Consulate in Miami" ??
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
This is critical to the credibility of Steele's source for this "payments to hackers" allegation: if they're wrong about "Miami" what *else* are they wrong about? ?? pic.twitter.com/uRhqy8rg42
N.B: Kavalec was right: at the time, the Russian Consulate in Florida was 450KM away from Miami, in Tampa (apparently in the same building as the US Commerce Dept.) - literally a 60 second Google search would have shown that this allegation about payments from "Miami" was false
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
N.B: Kavalec was right: at the time, the Russian Consulate in Florida was 450KM away from Miami, in Tampa (apparently in the same building as the US Commerce Dept.) - literally a 60 second Google search would have shown that this allegation about payments from "Miami" was false
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
FYI: These notes from Kavalec are immediately forwarded to Stephen Laycock in FBI Counterintelligence, who then passes them onto Peter Strzok (note: the Page FISA is generated out of the Counterespionage section [CD4] of the Counterintelligence division, which Strzok supervises)
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
Here is the part of Steele's dossier about the "Miami" payments to "cyber operators" (i.e. hackers) "based in the U.S." and it is attributed to...
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
..."SOURCE E" ??
("Miami" is not mentioned anywhere else in the dossier except attributed to Source E) pic.twitter.com/iOJMo25wRI
Source E is also "confirms" the Trump/hookers "pee tape" allegations and provides an introduction to a Ritz-Carlton hotel employee for validation of this kompromat allegation pic.twitter.com/tNBOTV2nsz
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
Steele even tells Kavalec that he's only "persuaded the story about the prostitutes is accurate" *BECAUSE OF SOURCE E*. The same guy who doesn't know where the Russian Consulate is in Florida? Yep, he's the Pee Tape confirmation pic.twitter.com/iqHhLucaZS
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
Reminder: Intel sources called Steele "meticulous" with a "formidable record" pic.twitter.com/nBdbzbbSxq
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
Back to Source E. He is *also* the primary source for "Steele's" explosive claim of a "well-developed conspiracy of cooperation between [Trump] and the Russian leadership", which is managed by Paul Manafort via @carterwpage, including the DNC hacking/release to Wikileaks ?? pic.twitter.com/qZZtOUrMSI
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
That allegation of a conspiracy involving Page and members of the Trump campaign to interfere in the election in "coordination" with Russia is what the FBI/DOJ swore they believed to the FISA court. "Conspiracy" is also the exact word needed to implicate potential federal crimes pic.twitter.com/GhuxlI8Vh6
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
Some conclusions:
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
–The FBI should have known there was no Russian Consulate in Miami *themselves*, when they attempted to verify the dossier claims
–Even if the FBI didn't try and properly verify the dossier (likely), Kavalec told the FBI this fact explicitly *BEFORE THE FISA*
–So, Steele's SOURCE E for the "Miami" payments is giving Steele FALSE information, either mistakenly, or worse: deliberately
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
–The next logical source verification step once the FBI realizes this is to check all of the *other* allegations made by SOURCE E as they're also suspect
There is no evidence that the FBI/DOJ even tried to verify the dossier before the FISA, and no evidence they even informed the FISC that SOURCE E was potentially unreliable after the first FISA was sought.
— Undercover Huber (@JohnWHuber) May 16, 2019
And it gets worse...
The DOJ under Attorney General William Barr is already looking into whether this whole circus was an elaborate Russian disinformation campaign. With these findings, it’s not hard to see why. And yet, if this was Russia’s intent, the Democrats keep the campaign going with their endless crusade to prove Russia-Trump collusion that doesn’t exist. It never existed, but it still drives the Left mad that Trump is president and Hillary is not. They need any reason to explain one of the greatest upsets in modern American political history, even if it’s conspiracy theory slop.
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