Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Wednesday, January 10, 2018

THE FBI KNEW TRUMP WAS INVOLVED WITH THE RUSSIANS AND THAT THE RUSSIANS TAMPERED WITH THE 2016 ELECTION







And below is some background on Glenn Simpson and Christopher Steele. Fascinating. But the most important revelation to come out of the Fusion GPS document is that YES, the Russians were very much involved with Trump and his campaign, and Trump very likely has had some shady dealings with Russian mafia.

What is most troubling is the fact that that Russia involved itself in the 2016 election and that the only one who refuses to understand that is Trump, who continues to call the Russian connection to him and his campaign "a hoax." Trump has refused to call for an investigation into Russian tampering in the US election, thereby, allowing Putin to continue his assault on our electoral processes.

Why is that?








WASHINGTON — By the time the FBI sat down in September 2016 for a full interview with the ex-British spy who had been researching Donald Trump’s Russia connections, the bureau had already received information raising concerns about possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to a transcript made public Tuesday.

 Glenn Simpson, a former newspaper reporter and the founder of a research firm called Fusion GPS, spoke to the Senate Judiciary Committee for more than 10 hours in August about his research into Trump, and on Tuesday more than 300 pages of his testimony were released by the committee’s ranking Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California. Simpson told the committee that his associate, the former British intelligence operative Christopher Steele, sat down for a “full debriefing” with an FBI contact in Rome in September 2016.

During the debriefing, Steele shared information from his Russian sources, who said Trump had been coordinating with the Russian election-interference campaign of hacking and leaking. For the FBI, it wasn’t entirely new information, Simpson testified. “They believed Chris might be credible because they had other intelligence that indicated the same thing," Simpson said. "One of those pieces of intelligence was a human source from inside the Trump organization." He added that the FBI had a “walk-in" whistleblower who was someone in Trump’s orbit.

[SKIP]


A front-page New York Times article on Oct. 31 about the Trump-Russia investigation said the FBI had found no conclusive link between Trump and Russia. After the article was published, Simpson said, Steele severed his relationship with the FBI.

 “There was a concern that the FBI was being manipulated for political ends by the Trump people and that we didn't really understand what was going on,” Simpson said. It has since emerged that there was an active FBI counterintelligence investigation, which began in July 2016 but which the bureau kept secret. Simpson said a dossier, which contained unverified allegations that Russia had been cultivating Trump for years and had gathered compromising information on Trump, contained all the memos Steele had produced for Fusion GPS, and that neither Fusion nor Simpson selected the content or edited the memos. 

The dossier was published by Buzzfeed. Simpson said when he began his research into Trump, he was struck by Trump’s many connections to people linked to Russian organized crime, including Felix Sater, who pleaded guilty in 1998 to a mafia stock swindle and later helped Trump develop the Trump Soho hotel. Simpson said he found Steele’s reports that the Russians were coordinating with the Trump campaign credible.



Fusion GPS transcripts reveal two things—the corruption of Trump, the treachery of the Republicans

"By the end of the transcript, a few things were clear: Even before they hired Christopher Steele, Fusion GPS was well aware of Trump’s numerous connections to crime bosses in Russia and in former Soviet states. Steele was hired, not to generate information, but to fill in the gaps around relationships that were already obvious from the public record and Trump’s own statements. 

 And almost from the moment he began investigating, Steele came across a flood of confirmation— information that included deliberate efforts on the part of the Russian government to influence the United States election. Information so disturbing that Steele felt it was requisite on him, as a professional with decades of experience in intelligence, to take what he had learned to American authorities and inform them of a grave and growing danger. When he did, Steele was relieved to find that the FBI was already on the topic and taking it seriously, thanks to information that originated inside Trump’s campaign. 

 Most of all, the transcript revealed just why Senator Chuck Grassley was so determined to keep it hidden. Because the clear words on the page made it obvious that the criminal charges leveled at Steele by Grassley and Senator Lindsey Graham went beyond political showboating and into the realm of egregious obstruction. The transcript makes it dead clear that Republicans have no interest in finding the truth, or in protecting the nation."

10 comments:

Shaw Kenawe said...

From TPM:

Trump repeated eight times in his response that no collusion had yet been found between him or his associates and Russia. (Congressional and federal investigators’ probes are ongoing.)

He also highlighted the conditions under which Hillary Clinton was interviewed in July 2016 by the FBI during the bureau’s investigation of her use of a private email server. Trump incorrectly asserted that the FBI agents interviewing Clinton didn’t take notes — they did — and asserted “a lot of people looked upon that as being a very serious breach and it really was.”

After he bobbed and weaved, the President gave his real answer: “We’ll see what happens. Certainly I’ll see what happens. But when they have no collusion and nobody has found any collusion, at any level, it seems unlikely that you would even have an interview.”


Trump:

"NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION
NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION
NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION NO COLLUSION"

Ducky's here said...

Lord Dampnut stated that the U.S. might rejoin the Pris Climate accord.

This after he agreed to postpone upcoming military exercises with the South Koreans.

Someone spike his cheeseburger?

Shaw Kenawe said...

On another note, the administration has exempted Florida from offshore drilling.

Florida's governor is Republican, California, whose governor is a Democrat, is not exempted from offshore drilling.

I wonder what the difference is.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Ducky, Lord Dampnut was all over the map on his televised cabinet meeting, and his Republican keister kissers were not pleased. Anytime L.D. says anything about policy off-the-cuff, he contradicts the GOP. They all know he's a moron and knows nothing about governing.

Everyone does, except the cultists who support him.

Jerry Critter said...

Clearly, Trump’s brain is running on empty.

Dervish Sanders said...

New Republican "lock them up" target: Christopher Steele. Not sure how they can do that seeing as he's a Brit. Will likely go nowhere, but does clearly signal that Congressional Republicans are covering for Trump.

Ducky's here said...

President Trump is now denying that he ever described developing nations as “shithole countries.” But he is acknowledging that he did use “tough” language in the context of the debate over whether to take in people from said shitholes

-----------
Looks like he's back to normal.
Such a master of diplomatic language.

Shaw Kenawe said...

His enablers are making excuses for him. They are a distinct minority of spineless suck-ups. i understand better than ever how despots come to power and maintain their cultists were witnessing it right now, right here in America.

Jerry Critter said...

Well, now Trump has pissed off everyone. People with a brain are pissed because of his shithole comment. People without a brain (his supporters) are now pissed because he is denying that he said it.

skudrunner said...

Like a somewhat famous person said "what difference does it make". Did Russians come here and vote. That would be illegal to have non-citizens vote wouldn't it? The only place where it is legal to vote while dead is Chicago and they didn't vote for DJT. How did Russia change the outcome?
I would place more faith in what trump said if it didn't come from Durbin who is a political hacks hack although I do think trump said something like what is being reported.