Congressional investigators know that Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled the Trump dossier on behalf of the Clinton campaign, kept supplying allegations to the FBI after the 2016 election — and even after he was terminated as a source by the bureau for giving confidential information to the media.Sen. Grassley is trying to get the 302s released. But because they make the FBI look bad, they're not coming out, at least now. "Tyler Deurden" at Zero Hedge: New FBI Docs Reveal Agency Paid Steele, Admonished Him, And Strzok Sat On Weiner Probe
Because he had broken his agreement with the FBI, bureau procedure did not allow agents to keep using Steele as a source. But they did so anyway — by devising a system in which Steele spoke regularly with Bruce Ohr, a top Obama Justice Department official whose wife worked for Fusion GPS, which hired Steele to search for dirt on Donald Trump in Russia. Ohr then passed on Steele's information to the FBI.
In a highly unusual arrangement, Ohr, who was the fourth-highest ranking official in the Justice Department, acted as an intermediary for a terminated source for the FBI's Trump-Russia probe. His task was to deliver to the FBI what Steele told him, which effectively meant the bureau kept Steele as a source.
. . .
Congressional investigators have read the Ohr-Steele 302s. But the FBI has kept them under tight control, insisting they remain classified and limiting access to a few lawmakers and staff. Congress is not allowed to physically possess copies of any of the documents.
Another FBI vault release under the "Hillary Clinton" files (Part 24 of 24) reveals that disgraced counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok waited until November 9th, 2016 to submit the hard drive from what is believed to be Anthony Weiner's laptop to the FBI's forensics team to investigate whether the device had been hacked - something they told a Judge was a concern to justify their October 30 search warrant application.After it was too late to screw up her election.
It's already known that the FBI sat on the Weiner laptop, which the agency knew contained Clinton emails as early as September 28, 2016, yet former FBI Director James Comey wasn't briefed on the newfound emails until October 27, 2016. The FBI famously analyzed 350,000 emails and 344,000 blackberry communications in just a few days (Oct. 30 - Nov. 5, 2016).
However as the Conservative Treehouse and others have noted, Strzok waited until November 9 - one day after Hillary Clinton's loss, to submit the laptop's hard drive to the forensics team.
Jeff Carlson, Themarketswork, Revisiting the Page FISA Applications & James Wolfe Indictment
According to the Wolfe Indictment, on March 17 2017 Wolfe exchanged 82 text messages with reporter Ali Watkins, and that evening engaged in a 28-minute phone call with her.Note that last wasn't posed as a question. The media has had the full FISA applications since the Senate received them. Why haven't they released them? They've never been shy about releasing "secret" documents in the past. Because it doesn't help their narrative, that's why.
The Original Page FISA Application is 83 pages long. Including one final signatory page (h/t the Conservative Treehouse). It seems more than plausible that Wolfe took pictures of the Original FISA Application and sent them by text to Watkins.
Perhaps even more important: What Wolfe sent was almost certainly an unredacted version.
In the public version of the Original Page FISA Application there are 37 fully redacted pages(out of 83 total). Several other pages have redactions for all but the header. There are only two pages in the entire document that contain no redactions. Why would Wolfe bother to send 37 pages of complete redactions.
NYT (remember, they hate you) Paul Manafort Was Deep in Debt. He Saw an Opportunity in Trump. Manafort trial day 4: Accountant concedes possible wrongdoing, Manafort's double life. I'm fully prepared to believe Manafort is a scummy businessman, but he's only under scrutiny from the Mueller because of his connection to Trump, to wit, Mueller 'Did Nothing' About Alleged Manafort Crimes as FBI Director
. . . Levin said that Mueller "did nothing about [the alleged crimes], apparently" but has a newfound interest in the 2005 case because of Manafort's ties to President Donald Trump.Colin Kalmbacher at Law and Crime: Judge Ellis Loses Patience with Mueller Prosecutors and Ends Court Early Over Screw-Up Caught using a non-expert to give expert testimony. It seems indicative of a weakness in their case that they keep skating so close to (and over) the ethical lines.
He said that the accusations are a matter for the office of Zachary Terwilliger, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and not Mueller's special counsel probe into alleged collusion.
"What the hell do we have the special counsel for? Because he wants Trump," Levin said.
Already Been Chewed News: All eyes on 'right-hand man' in Manafort trial. Rick Gates, Manafort' now immunized business partner. Manafort's lawyers have already said they intend to blame him for any illegalities.
Mark Levin tells Trump what he should tell Mueller — scorching HOT
“I hope the president’s lawyers are listening to me, and the president, right now. Here’s what you should tell Mr. Mueller: have a meeting with him and tell him, you’re unconstitutional under the Appointments Clause, what you’re doing is unconstitutional as far as we are concerned, we are not going to bow to you, this is the office of the President of the United States, you are a rogue prosecutor, now get the hell out of my office and make sure the door doesn’t hit you in the ass. I’ll see you in court. That’s the beginning and the end of it, as far as I’m concerned,” Levin said.AP: Little fighting so far over files seized from Trump lawyer What's the fun in that? I want to see conflict!
So far, though, a court-ordered review of the seized material has been less a battle than a congenial slog.I'm always amazed at the number of documents involved in these searches. If you spent one minute making or reading and thinking about each document (even a text takes time), that's 694 days per million, roughly two years, times 4 is roughly 8 years of two peoples time. I pity the poor "special mistress" who has to wade through this crap.
Barbara Jones, the former federal judge appointed as a “special master” to referee any disagreements over attorney-client privilege, is nearly finished with her work and to date the lawyers for Cohen and the Republican president have yet to contest any of her decisions.
According to court filings, she already has given prosecutors access to more than 3.5 million of the 4 million seized electronic communications, recorded conversations, videos and other items taken in the April 9 raid.
Lawyers for Cohen, Trump and the Trump Organization designated 12,000 documents as privileged and confidential. As of Thursday, Jones had gone through 9,000 of those files and largely split her decisions: She said 3,600 didn’t qualify as privileged or highly personal.
The Trump and Cohen legal teams have the ability to challenge Jones’ decisions before U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood. So far, they have not.
“Mr. Cohen and his counsel are extraordinarily grateful to the special master and her firm for the painstaking care and clear direction she provided to keep this process on track, efficient and on time,” Todd Harrison, a lawyer for Cohen, said in a court filing. Harrison said some of the devices belonged to Cohen’s daughter, son and wife or only contained family videos and other highly personal materials.
Trump Organization lawyer Alan Futerfas has also praised the process, saying: “Everyone has been working very well together.”
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