More "Russian Collusion" Shenanigans

It's been a busy week. And it's only Tuesday. Ace has Revealed: The Criminal Referral for Christopher Steele

I believe the existence of this criminal referral made the news (barely) on January 4th, but now you can read the heavily-redacted criminal referral itself.

Steele is being referred to the prosecutorial arms of the government for a possible violation of 18 USC 1001, which makes it criminal to lie or to mislead or conceal by trickery any material fact to a federal tribunal or inquiry. There are so many redactions I can't quite make out what he's being accused of misleading the FBI about, but it seems to be either:

1, the timing of when he told the FBI he gave briefings to the media, that is, he claimed these briefings occurred at the end of October 2016 but in fact he has now admitted some occurred in the summer/early fall of 2016,
and/or

2, that he remained in close contact with Clinton associates [Redacted] and maybe also [Redacted], who were feeding him "intelligence" which he in turn passed off, maybe, as his own intel. Those redacted names would belong to, most likely, non-intelligence-officers/longtime Hillary "fixers" and smear merchants Sidney Blumenthal and Cody Shearer.

A possibility occurs to me: What if Steele is just the Front Man hired to put a presentable face on the detestable, dishonest mercenaries Blumenthal and Shearer? What if most of the crap in the "Steele Dossier" in fact originated with this repellent pair, with "widely-respected British spy" Christopher Steele hired just to do a very low level of checking on the claims and then slap his own much-more-credible name on the shoddy "research"?

Was Steele just a way for Sid "The Shiv" Blumenthal unsourced rumors the sheen of respectability (the sound of an English accent, even Cockney, adds 10 IQ points in the minds of most Americans), so it could be passed of as legit to the FBI and the FISA court?

Ace also asks:  Were Fusion GPS' Payments to Bruce Ohr's Wife Really an Attempt to Pay a Government Employee for Government Action.

"The financial arrangement between Mrs. Ohr and Fusion GPS gives the appearance of government-for-hire," said Tom Anderson, an ethics expert at the conservative-leaning watchdog group the National Legal and Policy Center. It "appears to be a sophisticated scheme to get access to the highest levels of our government... ensuring the use of government resources in an attempt to influence an election."

Nothing like a couple hundred k of easy money through the back door to get some help from your friendly local United States associate deputy attorney general. Hey, Washington D.C. is an expensive neighborhood!

Was Carter Page actually an FBI snitch against the Russians back in 2014? Rumors that Carter Page was indeed approached by Russians, but instead turned State's evidence. Evgeny Buryakov Pleads Guilty In Manhattan Federal Court In Connection With Conspiracy To Work For Russian Intelligence. Page is apparently "UCE-2" in this document. How very much like the FBI to use the surveillance they had on Page for a legitimate Russian investigation into a general warrant to spy on the Trump campaign, transition, and administration. Read it all.

And sometimes it's just hard to remember how we got to where we are. A lot of events, and they disappear into the hazy past. Here to remind you is Forbes with: Biased FBI and DOJ Officials Broke The Law And Tried To Decide The Election - an Annotated Timeline. It's a long slog, but make yourself do it. And be prepared to be pissed off again.