Big if True

The claims in this piece are explosive.
[Concerns that the Steele memorandum had many false claims] were flagged in a typed memo and in handwritten notes taken by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec on Oct. 11, 2016.

Her observations were recorded exactly 10 days before the FBI used Steele and his infamous dossier to justify securing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and the campaign’s contacts with Russia in search of a now debunked collusion theory.

It is important to note that the FBI swore on Oct. 21, 2016, to the FISA judges that Steele’s “reporting has been corroborated and used in criminal proceedings” and the FBI has determined him to be “reliable” and was “unaware of any derogatory information pertaining” to their informant, who simultaneously worked for Fusion GPS, the firm paid by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Clinton campaign to find Russian dirt on Trump....

[Kavalec] quoted Steele as saying, “Payments to those recruited are made out of the Russian Consulate in Miami,” according to a copy of her summary memo obtained under open records litigation by the conservative group Citizens United. Kavalec bluntly debunked that assertion in a bracketed comment: “It is important to note that there is no Russian consulate in Miami.”

Kavalec, two days later and well before the FISA warrant was issued, forwarded her typed summary to other government officials. The State Department has redacted the names and agencies of everyone she alerted. It is unlikely that her concerns failed to reach the FBI.
Emphasis added.

8 comments:

raven said...

"Guillotine for sale, white oak frame, stainless steel fasteners, 1095 alloy high carbon steel blade. Never used, tested and certified by French National Guillotine Association." Best offer.

Grim said...

I was thinking good American hemp rope, used to decorate the oaks along the National Mall.

E Hines said...

I was thinking of a contest of blades--perhaps apocryphally told--wherein the Crusader knight demonstrated the power of his sword by chopping through an iron bar, and the Saracen demonstrated the keenness of his blade by tossing a silk scarf into the air and drawing his sword through it, cutting the scarf in two.

In lieu of the guillotine or rope, I opt for the knight's sword.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

I have some worthy ones, and axes as well.

Christopher B said...

It is important to note that the FBI swore on Oct. 21, 2016, to the FISA judges that Steele’s “reporting has been corroborated and used in criminal proceedings” and the FBI has determined him to be “reliable”...

I think it was Andrew McCarthy that pointed out a while ago that this assertion doesn't get the job done for the purposes of swearing out a warrant. Steele's report was full of second hand information from Russian and other dubious sources. It was not based on Steele's observations of Carter Page or anybody else. Steele's reliability is utterly extraneous to the question of whether the information presented in the warrant is reliable.

E Hines said...

I think it was Andrew McCarthy that pointed out a while ago that this assertion doesn't get the job done....

It's also the case that warrants have to show their "probable cause" in real time, not on the basis of a nebulously speculative future.

Eric Hines

Texan99 said...

DiGenova claims that IG Horowitz is closely following John Solomon's excellent investigative reporting on the FISA abuses and is close to lowering the hammer. I guess we'll see whether DiGenova has better sources than Rachel Maddow.

ymarsakar said...

The FBI determined Waco 1 and Waco 2 needed a purge by the State. Or perhaps, that was what the FBi was led to believe, from the Deep State that was controlling things behind the scenes.

See how Deep this rabbit hole goes. Far deeper than most can imagine as it turns out.

The thing about paranoia is that some people are paranoid because they are born with these energies and fate, it's just in their mental energy to act accordingly. But then there are those of us that see things that nobody else sees or knows about, because we get a download direct from the Divine internet of knowledge and wisdom.