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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forum*A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump*
Has the bureau investigated this material?DAVID CORN OCT. 31, 2016 7:52 PM
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/veteran-spy-gave-fbi-info-alleging-russian-operation-cultivate-donald-trump
On Friday, FBI Director James Comey set off a political blast when he informed congressional leaders that the bureau had stumbled across emails that might be pertinent to its completed inquiry into Hillary Clinton's handling of emails when she was secretary of state. The Clinton campaign and others criticized Comey for intervening in a presidential campaign by breaking with Justice Department tradition and revealing information about an investigationinformation that was vague and perhaps ultimately irrelevantso close to Election Day. On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid upped the ante. He sent Comey a fiery letter saying the FBI chief may have broken the law and pointed to a potentially greater controversy: "In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government The public has a right to know this information."....
Reid's missive set off a burst of speculation on Twitter and elsewhere. What was he referring to regarding the Republican presidential nominee? At the end of August, Reid had written to Comey and demanded an investigation of the "connections between the Russian government and Donald Trump's presidential campaign," and in that letter he indirectly referred to Carter Page, an American businessman cited by Trump as one of his foreign policy advisers, who had financial ties to Russia and had recently visited Moscow. Last month, Yahoo News reported that US intelligence officials were probing the links between Page and senior Russian officials. (Page has called accusations against him "garbage." On Monday, NBC News reported that the FBI has mounted a preliminary inquiry into the foreign business ties of Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chief. But Reid's recent note hinted at more than the Page or Manafort affairs. And a former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence tells Mother Jones that in recent months he provided the bureau with memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist Trumpand that the FBI requested more information from him....In June, the former Western intelligence officerwho spent almost two decades on Russian intelligence matters and who now works with a US firm that gathers information on Russia for corporate clientswas assigned the task of researching Trump's dealings in Russia and elsewhere, according to the former spy and his associates in this American firm. This was for an opposition research project originally financed by a Republican client critical of the celebrity mogul. (Before the former spy was retained, the project's financing switched to a client allied with Democrats.) "It started off as a fairly general inquiry," says the former spook, who asks not to be identified. But when he dug into Trump, he notes, he came across troubling information indicating connections between Trump and the Russian government. According to his sources, he says, "there was an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit."
This was, the former spy remarks, "an extraordinary situation." He regularly consults with US government agencies on Russian matters, and near the start of July on his own initiativewithout the permission of the US company that hired himhe sent a report he had written for that firm to a contact at the FBI, according to the former intelligence officer and his American associates, who asked not to be identified. (He declines to identify the FBI contact.) The former spy says he concluded that the information he had collected on Trump was "sufficiently serious" to share with the FBI.
Mother Jones has reviewed that report and other memos this former spy wrote. The first memo, based on the former intelligence officer's conversations with Russian sources, noted, "Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years. Aim, endorsed by PUTIN, has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance." It maintained that Trump "and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals." It claimed that Russian intelligence had "compromised" Trump during his visits to Moscow and could "blackmail him." It also reported that Russian intelligence had compiled a dossier on Hillary Clinton based on "bugged conversations she had on various visits to Russia and intercepted phone calls."
The former intelligence officer says the response from the FBI was "shock and horror." The FBI, after receiving the first memo, did not immediately request additional material, according to the former intelligence officer and his American associates. Yet in August, they say, the FBI asked him for all information in his possession and for him to explain how the material had been gathered and to identify his sources. The former spy forwarded to the bureau several memossome of which referred to members of Trump's inner circle. After that point, he continued to share information with the FBI. "It's quite clear there was or is a pretty substantial inquiry going on," he says.
Hoooo-weeeeee! Let the fooking GAMES begin!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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*A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump* (Original Post)
MADem
Oct 2016
OP
It would be one thing if this was the only indication of Russian influence
Fast Walker 52
Nov 2016
#20
yardwork
(61,715 posts)1. Kickety kick kick
MADem
(135,425 posts)5. It's a rip-roaring read, isn't it!!! nt
napkinz
(17,199 posts)2. thank you David Corn!
Jarqui
(10,130 posts)3. 100 yd hoof through the uprights with the clock ticking down!
MADem
(135,425 posts)4. That wet sploosh is the sound of the shit hitting the fan! nt
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)12. Which clock?
this one http://www.270towin.com/2016-countdown-clock/ or this one http://thebulletin.org/timeline It's 3 minutes to midnight still.
Hekate
(90,867 posts)8. Kickety kickety kickety
yardwork
(61,715 posts)16. Kick for am
Fast Walker 52
(7,723 posts)20. It would be one thing if this was the only indication of Russian influence
but the amazing fact is Trump is promoting policies highly favorable to Russia and even had the GOP platform changed. Not to mention many other weird connections with his campaign and Russia.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/10/was_a_server_registered_to_the_trump_organization_communicating_with_russia.html
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/russia-s-cold-decrepit-hand
napkinz
(17,199 posts)21. looks like MSM ignoring the story
it's now FIVE days they've spent on Emails
MADem
(135,425 posts)23. It always takes them a day or two to get the spirit.
This is why so many people ignore and devalue them--because they get it wrong, and can't keep up.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)22. David Corn on MSNBC discussing story now on MSNBC