The Grassley Memo

[Mystic Wanderer]

Dossier author Steele wrote another anti-Trump memo; was fed info by Clinton-connected contact, Obama State Department

by Byron York | Feb 5, 2018, 10:39 AM

A newly released document from the Senate Judiciary Committee says Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled the Trump dossier, wrote an additional memo on the subject of Donald Trump and Russia that was not among those published by BuzzFeed in January 2017.

The newly released document is an unclassified and heavily redacted version of the criminal referral targeting Steele filed on Jan. 4 by Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. It appears to confirm some level of coordination between the extended Clinton circle and the Obama administration in the effort to seek damaging information about then-candidate Trump.

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According to the referral, Steele wrote the additional memo based on anti-Trump information that originated with a foreign source. In a convoluted scheme outlined in the referral, the foreign source gave the information to an unnamed associate of Hillary and Bill Clinton, who then gave the information to an unnamed official in the Obama State Department, who then gave the information to Steele. Steele wrote a report based on the information, but the redacted version of the referral does not say what Steele did with the report after that.

Published accounts in [url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/30/trump-russia-collusion-fbi-cody-shearer-memo]the Guardian and the Washington Post have indicated that Clinton associate Cody Shearer was in contact with Steele about anti-Trump research, and Obama State Department official Jonathan Winer was a connection between Steele and the State Department during the 2016 campaign.

When Grassley and Graham filed the referral with the Justice Department on Jan. 4, the document was classified (although the two senators released an unclassified cover letter announcing the referral). What followed was a month of haggling with the Justice Department over what material in the referral could be made public. The result is the version of the referral released this morning. It has whole paragraphs and keywords blacked out, making it hard to discern its full meaning.

For example, a press release accompanying the referral said the referral "contains verbatim quotes from the [Carter Page surveillance] application that are not included in the [House Intelligence Committee] memo. Specifically, the referral quotes the application's descriptions of Steele's statements to the FBI about his contacts with the media." Lest anyone get too excited, the press release went on to say that the quotes "remain redacted" in the version of the referral released Monday.

Also redacted is information related to the key allegation of the Grassley-Graham referral: that Steele was untruthful with the FBI and Justice Department over the issue of his many contacts with the press. If Steele was acting as a trusted source for the FBI on the highly confidential Trump-Russia investigation, it would have been improper for him to share his information with the press at the same time.

Some of the redacted passages also relate to the question of statements about Steele's press contacts that the FBI made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in applying for the Page surveillance warrant that was the subject of the House Intelligence Committee memo released Friday.

It's a lot to digest. But further details will have to wait until the rest of the referral is declassified. Senate sources say they hope that will be soon.

                          HEAVILY redacted!  What are they trying to hide?  The Nunes memo showed everything!

Grassely Memo

Sorry, but the format is all messed up when I try to copy/paste.  Read from the link above.


Here is another newly released declassified memo. It doesn't appear to have as much blacked out:

Grassely Memo, Take Two

[BIAD]

Relevant parts from Mystic's link:

'...MEMORANDUM

Referral of Christopher Steele for Potential Violation of 18 U.S. C. § 1001

(U) As you know, former British Intelligence Officer Christopher Steele was hired by the private firm Fusion GPS in June 2016 to gather
information about "links between Russia and [then-presidential candidate] Donald Trump."

1 Pursuant to that business arrangement, Mr. Steele prepared a series of documents styled as intelligence reports, some of which
were later compiled into a "dossier" and published by BuzzFeed in January 2017.

2 On the face of the dossier, it appears that Mr. Steele gathered much of his information from Russian government sources inside Russia.

3 According to the law firm Perkins Coie, Mr. Steele's dossier-related efforts were funded through Fusion GPS by that law firm on behalf
of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Campaign.

4(U) In response to reporting by the Washington Post ???????????????????????????? about the Judiciary Committee began raising a
series of questions to the FBI and the Justice Department about these matters as part of the Committee's constitutional oversight
responsibilities.

5(U) The FBI has since provided the Committee access to classified documents relevant to the ??????????????????????????????

As explained in greater detail below, when information in those classified documents is evaluated in light of sworn statements by Mr. Steele
in British litigation, it appears that either Mr. Steele lied to the rBI or the British court, or that the classified documents reviewed by the
Committee contain materially false statements.


(U) In response to the Committee's inquiries, the Chairman and Ranking Member received a briefing on March 15, 2017, from then-Director
James B. Corney, Jr.

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(U) Similarly, in June 2017, former FBI Director Corney testified publicly before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that he had
briefed President-Elect Trump on the dossier allegations in January 2017, which Mr. Corney described as "salacious" and "unverified."

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(U) But there is substantial evidence suggesting that Mr. Steele materially misled the FBI about a key aspect of his dossier efforts, one
which bears on his credibility.

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????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

(U) However, public reports, court filings, and information obtained by the Committee during witness interviews in the course of its
ongoing investigation indicate that Mr. Steele ?????????? provided dossier information ?????????????????the end of ???????????????????
to numerous m'edia organizations prior to October 2016.

(U) In Steele's sworn court filings in litigation in London, he admitted that he "gave off the record briefings to a small number of journalists
about he pre-election memoranda [i.e., the dossier] in late summer/autumn 2016."

In another sworn filing in that case, Mr. Steele further stated that journalists from "the New York Times, the Washington Post, Yahoo News,
the New Yorker, and CNN" were "briefed at the end of September 2016 by [Steele] and Fusion at Fusion's instruction." 

The filing fmther states that Mr. Steele "subsequently participated in further meetings at Fusion's instruction with Fusion and the New York
Times, the Washington Post, and Yahoo News, which took place mid-October 2016."

According to these court filings,. "[t]he briefings involved the disclosure of limited intelligence regarding indications of Russian
interference in the US election process and the possible co-ordination of members of Trump's campaign team and Russian government
officials."

In his interview with the Committee, Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS confirmed this account by Mr. Steele and his company as filed in
the British court.
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

(U) Mr. Steele conducted his work for Fusion GPS compiling the "pre-election memoranda" "[b]etween June and early November 2016."
In the British litigation, Mr. Steele acknowledged briefing journalists about the dossier memoranda "in late summer/autumn 2016."

Unsurprisingly, during the summer of 2016, reports of at least some of the dossier allegations began circulating among reporters and people
involved in Russian issues. Mr. Steele also admitted in the British litigation to briefing journalists from the Washington Post, Yahoo News,
the New Yorker, and CNN in September of 2016,

Simply put, the more people who contemporaneously knew that Mr. Steele was compiling his dossier, the more likely it was vulnerable to
manipulation. In fact, in the British litigation, which involves a post-election dossier memorandum, Mr. Steele admitted that he received and
included in it unsolicited-and unverified-allegations.

That filing implies that he similarly received unsolicited intelligence on these matters prior to the election as well, stating that Mr. Steele
"continued to receive unsolicited intelligence on the matters covered by the pre-election memoranda after the US Presidential election. "

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

(U) One memorandum by Mr. Steele that was not published by Buzzfeed is dated October 19, 2016. The report alleges ???????????????,
as well as ?????????????. Mr. Steele's memorandum states that his company "received this report from ???????? US State Department,"
that the report was the second in a series, and that the report was information that came from a fore~gn sub-source who "is in touch
with ??????????, a contact of ???????????, a friend of the Clintons, who passed it to ???????????."

It is troubling enough that the Clinton Campaign funded Mr. Steele's work, but that these Clinton associates were contemporaneously
feeding Mr. Steele allegations raises additional concerns about his credibility.

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

(U) On September 23, 2016, Yahoo News published its article entitled "U.S. Intel Officials Probe Ties Between Trump Adviser and Kremlin."
That article described claims about meetings between Carter Page and Russians, including Igor Sechin.

Mr. Sechin is described in the article as "a longtime Putin associate and former Russian deputy prime minister" under sanction by the Treasury
Department in response to Russia's actions in the Ukraine. The article attributes the information to "a well-placed Western intelligence source,"
who reportedly said that "[a]t their alleged meeting, Sechin raised the issue of the lifting of sanctions with Page."
This information also appears in multiple "memoranda" that make up the dossier.

(U) In sum, around the same time Yahoo News published its article containing dossier information about Carter Page, Mr. Steele and Fusion GPS
had briefed Yahoo News and other news outlets about information contained in the dossier.

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????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????..'

[Mystic Wanderer]

Thank you @"BIAD".  

[Mystic Wanderer]

From the newly released declassified memo:

[BIAD]

Any of the one-or-two media outlets that want to report on this situation would be hesitant to say what all
this really is, but I think we can say it.

A Coup-Gang.

[Mystic Wanderer]

Any of the one-or-two media outlets that want to report on this situation would be hesitant to say what all
this really is, but I think we can say it.

A Coup-Gang.

Absolutely!  

[Mystic Wanderer]

Here is a list of the FISC court... all appointed during the Obummer years.  Imagine that!

[Mystic Wanderer]

LIVE NOW!

[Mystic Wanderer]

This guy does a fantastic job of breaking down the important points of the new FBI Tests.