The Russia Investigation: Trump Pardons Flynn (2 Viewers)

[Henry Ford]

I guess he owes Putin now.

Lol. “Now.”

 

[Henry Ford]

https://twitter.com/johnwhuber/status/1106626726518579201



This is incredible.  Christopher Steele used CNN “iReports”- an unvetted, un-factchecked platform with “no connection to any CNN reporters”- to “verify” parts of the Webzilla/Gubarev section in the dossier.  But assumed it had “some kind of CNN status.”  

You think it’s incredible that someone used unverified and un-fact checked allegations to perform preliminary verification on raw intelligence data?

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

This is incredible.  Christopher Steele used CNN “iReports”- an unvetted, un-factchecked platform with “no connection to any CNN reporters”- to “verify” parts of the Webzilla/Gubarev section in the dossier.  But assumed it had “some kind of CNN status.”

I posted the Steele transcript in the FBI thread if you're interested in discussing this issue substantively. But I'm curious about something - this anon account cites to and has snips from pages 46, 47 and 49 of the deposition. As far as I can tell the Daily Caller version, which the anon links to, only goes to page 44. Can you find any link on the internet to those pages? Because I don't see them on the www.

 

[ren hoek]

You think it’s incredible that someone used unverified and un-fact checked allegations to perform preliminary verification on raw intelligence data?

It's incredible to me that he used internet rando posts to confirm parts of the dossier, but thought they were somehow backed by CNN's low standards.  

 

[Henry Ford]

It's incredible to me that he used internet rando posts to confirm parts of the dossier, but thought they were somehow backed by CNN's low standards.  

If you read the deposition it’s pretty clear it doesn’t matter if it’s backed by CNN at all. As you point out in this post, why would that make a difference to him?

 

[ren hoek]

If you read the deposition it’s pretty clear it doesn’t matter if it’s backed by CNN at all. As you point out in this post, why would that make a difference to him?

The report was handed over to Kramer/McCain, distributed to many different news outlets, and created a narrative implicating the president in a collusion scheme with a foreign power.  Shouldn't it have been verified as true, if not for decency's sake then at least for Steele's own reputation, before a forthcoming president-elect got slandered by it in mass media?  Why wouldn't it matter that the information was actually true and correct?  

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

Why wouldn't it matter that the information was actually true and correct?  

Of course it mattered.  That's why the media sat on it for months before revealing it to the public.  In fact, Buzzfeed waited until they found out that both Obama and Trump had been briefed on some of it before finally deciding to report it.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

The report was handed over to Kramer/McCain, distributed to many different news outlets, and created a narrative implicating the president in a collusion scheme with a foreign power.  Shouldn't it have been verified as true, if not for decency's sake then at least for Steele's own reputation, before a forthcoming president-elect got slandered by it in mass media?  Why wouldn't it matter that the information was actually true and correct?  

It’s raw intelligence. I’ll also add that if you look they’re talking about 1. open source, and 2. other verification. This is (if you read it) just the first part. And Steele probably hadn’t heard of webzilla, he’s not a cyber expert or probably even someone who deals in servers or file transfers. Once you look up what webzilla is, that’s pretty much it. He even *says that he realized it was just an independent individual person posting on the www. The problem is you’re citing an anon poster - someone who’s snipping from 5 pages that arent even publicly available btw - who has no name, zero background himself. Have you thought about the fact you’re linking to this person or persons and the criticism is that Steele didn’t check the nature of his open source?

 

[Henry Ford]

The report was handed over to Kramer/McCain, distributed to many different news outlets, and created a narrative implicating the president in a collusion scheme with a foreign power.  Shouldn't it have been verified as true, if not for decency's sake then at least for Steele's own reputation, before a forthcoming president-elect got slandered by it in mass media?  Why wouldn't it matter that the information was actually true and correct?  

I believe he also clarified that he did not give permission nor request media release. 

 

[James Daulton]

The report was handed over to Kramer/McCain, distributed to many different news outlets, and created a narrative implicating the president in a collusion scheme with a foreign power.  Shouldn't it have been verified as true, if not for decency's sake then at least for Steele's own reputation, before a forthcoming president-elect got slandered by it in mass media?  Why wouldn't it matter that the information was actually true and correct?  

Didn't Trump push birtherism for years based on obviously fake news?

 

[moleculo]

The report was handed over to Kramer/McCain, distributed to many different news outlets, and created a narrative implicating the president in a collusion scheme with a foreign power.  Shouldn't it have been verified as true, if not for decency's sake then at least for Steele's own reputation, before a forthcoming president-elect got slandered by it in mass media?  Why wouldn't it matter that the information was actually true and correct?  

You are right.  This stuff definitely should have been investigated.  Of course, if you are investigating the president, he should know about it unless you want him claiming some sort of conspiracy to being him down.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Trump had change of tone in Twitter today. Abandoning No Collusion!!!11 for Mueller never had legal authority so there should be no report. I’d read that as Barr told him ####’s going to get real.

Orange 1 on the tweeter has definitely been quite agitated the last couple days.

 

[Rove!]

It's incredible to me that he used internet rando posts to confirm parts of the dossier, but thought they were somehow backed by CNN's low standards.  

So parts of the Steele Dossier came from random internet trolls?  Wow. . It seems that people were saying that two years ago wand got shouted down....

two years of Mueller and ####load of Congressional investigations later, why are we we just learning that now, and only from a civil suit completely unrelated to any official government investigation?

This is a total disgrace.  

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

So parts of the Steele Dossier came from random internet trolls?  Wow.  It seems that people were saying that two years ago wand got shouted down....

two years of Mueller and ####load of Congressional investigations later, why are we we just learning that now, and only from a civil suit completely unrelated to any official government investigation?

This is a total disgrace.  

Right, per Mr. "Undercover Huber."

eta - I posted the whole transcript in the FBI thread but here is some more context (because only snips on these pages are available on the web):

here

and here

here also.

I have no idea where there is a link with those extra pages still, but I think the key here is that the deposition was subject to a court order about what could be discussed. You can see that Steele is asked “so all you did was internet searches to corroborate" this information about webzilla and xbt, and Steele says no, that is not accurate, there were other efforts, but the court order doesn’t permit discussion of sources or efforts to verify the sources. All he could discuss was what he did in terms of open sources, which was see what was online about the detail in the last December 2016 report. If you look at the discussion on XBT he said he did no open source checks. 

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

And the  quiestioner didn't even know what an open source search was himself.

 

[Sinn Fein]

This is a total disgrace.  

Serious question - assuming you are serious here.

How is this a "disgrace"?

Has Trump been prevented from doing anything while the Mueller investigation is ongoing?

If there is no conspiracy or obstruction - that will be borne out in the investigation.  An investigation that clears Trump would be welcomed by Trump supporters, no?

And, why did so many people in the Trump campaign lie about contacts with Russians during the campaign?  If this was all "nothing" from the start - jus tbe upfront and act like it was nothing from the start.  When you start to lie about anything and everything - it adds to the suspicions.

Of course, I think the most generous look at the known facts so far is that the Trump campaign spoke with Russians during the campaign and signaled that a Trump administration would be likely to eliminate sanctions, and that the Russians took that information and decided to help Trump win the presidency - for Russia's own benefit.

 

[ren hoek]

I believe he also clarified that he did not give permission nor request media release. 

And yet, the person he gave it to at McCain's request paraded it around to a dozen reporters.  Just a wink and a nod and away it went!  

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

And yet, the person he gave it to at McCain's request paraded it around to a dozen reporters.  Just a wink and a nod and away it went!  

Kramer does deserve some criticism I think. This was raw intelligence. We've seen/heard of government sources who flash information, so he could have done that instead of transmitting it. I'd agree just setting raw intelligence on something that hot into the wild was a bad idea.

I do think you have an internal contradiction though. You regularly argue for release of public and private information no matter how obtained so long as it merely touches on public issues. The dossier undoubtedly qualifies as that.

 

[ren hoek]

You are right.  This stuff definitely should have been investigated.  Of course, if you are investigating the president, he should know about it unless you want him claiming some sort of conspiracy to being him down.

What's bizarre to me is, if he already had contacts at the FBI and MI6 (and I assume the CIA by extension), why bother giving it to Kramer?  If he wanted it to get to the US intelligence agencies, this 'raw intelligence' corroborated by CNN posters, he would have known exactly who to reach out to at the FBI from his past work.  Instead, it ends up in the hands of a staffer (of McCain, a turbo Russiahawk who hated Trump) who gives it away to tons of media outlets.  

This was handled like a salacious piece of political gossip among schoolgirls.  Not a serious intelligence lead.  

 

[Snorkelson]

What's bizarre to me is, if he already had contacts at the FBI and MI6 (and I assume the CIA by extension), why bother giving it to Kramer?  If he wanted it to get to the US intelligence agencies, this 'raw intelligence' corroborated by CNN posters, he would have known exactly who to reach out to at the FBI from his past work.  Instead, it ends up in the hands of a staffer (of McCain, a turbo Russiahawk who hated Trump) who gives it away to tons of media outlets.  

This was handled like a salacious piece of political gossip among schoolgirls.  Not a serious intelligence lead.  

If you read the transcript, he used more than open source verification but can’t talk about it “per the order.” So can we quit acting like he saw a post on fbgs and we opened an investigation on the president?

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

What's bizarre to me is, if he already had contacts at the FBI and MI6 (and I assume the CIA by extension), why bother giving it to Kramer?  If he wanted it to get to the US intelligence agencies, this 'raw intelligence' corroborated by CNN posters, he would have known exactly who to reach out to at the FBI from his past work.  Instead, it ends up in the hands of a staffer (of McCain, a turbo Russiahawk who hated Trump) who gives it away to tons of media outlets.  

This was handled like a salacious piece of political gossip among schoolgirls.  Not a serious intelligence lead.  

To get it to McCain. Kramer was briefed on the dossier after the election, in late November 2016. The point of giving it to Kramer was to give it to McCain.

McCain, like a good American, gave it to the FBI, because he didn't realize they already had it. And that's what a good citizen would do, report a suspected crime to the authorities.

 

[ren hoek]

Kraimer does deserve some criticism I think. This was raw intelligence. We've seen/heard of government sources who flash information, so he could have done that instead of transmitting it. I'd agree just setting raw intelligence on something that hot into the wild was a bad idea.

I do think you have an internal contradiction though. You regularly argue for release of public and private information no matter how obtained so long as it merely touches on public issues. The dossier undoubtedly qualifies as that.

I do.  I think the passage of the dossier (and acquisition of FISA warrants) was circular in such a way as to create suspicion where there wasn't any legitimate reason for it.  FBI leaks stuff to reporters, reporters write a story, the story is used to bolster FBI's investigation.  

The fact that the most salacious parts of the dossier appear to be complete garbage, and the parts that have 'held up' were mostly based on information that was available on google at the time, kind of undercuts the notion that this document carried serious public interest.  Certainly not to the extent that intelligence figures were being responsible pushing this narrative to the media.  But I get your point.  

 

[JuniorNB]

Love the fact that Trump and his flock have gone from No Collusion to hoping people will have more of a problem with why the investigation started than they do with the 200 criminal charges that have been found. So far. Interesting strategy. 

 

[ren hoek]

To get it to McCain. Kramer was briefed on the dossier after the election, in late November 2016. The point of giving it to Kramer was to give it to McCain.

McCain, like a good American, gave it to the FBI, because he didn't realize they already had it. And that's what a good citizen would do, report a suspected crime to the authorities.

So you think Kramer went rogue and Steele/McCain had absolutely no idea that unconfirmed, paid oppo dirt was being passed off to media as serious intelligence work?

"Good American" my ###.  This was about sliming Trump before he set foot in office.  

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

So you think Kramer went rogue and Steele/McCain had absolutely no idea that unconfirmed, paid oppo dirt was being passed off to media as serious intelligence work?

"Good American" my ###.  This was about sliming Trump before he set foot in office.  

I’d say it’s worth looking at the transcript to see what Kramer says. Supposedly IIRC he said he was appalled. 

Then they would have done it before the election.

 

[roadkill1292]

To be fair, lots of us were sliming Trump before he got into office. Because he's,well, pretty slimy.

 

[Slapdash]

It seems like the usual Russian propaganda arms, including the President's Twitter, are in overdrive today.

 

[moleculo]

I do.  I think the passage of the dossier (and acquisition of FISA warrants) was circular in such a way as to create suspicion where there wasn't any legitimate reason for it.  FBI leaks stuff to reporters, reporters write a story, the story is used to bolster FBI's investigation.  

The fact that the most salacious parts of the dossier appear to be complete garbage, and the parts that have 'held up' were mostly based on information that was available on google at the time, kind of undercuts the notion that this document carried serious public interest.  Certainly not to the extent that intelligence figures were being responsible pushing this narrative to the media.  But I get your point.  

Crossfire Hurricane began in July of 2016.  The Steele Dossier was written between June and December of 2016.  It was not the origin of the investigation itself, nor was it the basis for FISA warrants.  Yes, it was included in the application - it would be negligent to omit everything they had.

There clearly was legitimate suspicion regardless of the dossier.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

It seems like the usual Russian propaganda arms, including the President's Twitter, are in overdrive today.

Yep, on a tear, including the claims about Steele. Amazing how Undercover Huber has it Saturday and Trump has it Sunday.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

The President is fine, just great.

 

[ren hoek]

Kramer said he believed McCain was sought out in order to provide more “oomph” in terms of attracting the FBI’s attention.

“I think they felt a senior Republican was better to be the recipient of this rather than a Democrat because if it were a Democrat, I think that the view was that it would have been dismissed as a political attack,” said Kramer.

In some cases, according to the deposition, Kramer shared the dossier with reporters with Steele’s and Simpson’s knowledge.

Kramer said Steele asked him to meet with CNN’s Bernstein and BuzzFeed’s Ken Bensinger.

BuzzFeed published the dossier on Jan. 10, 2017. The website made the controversial decision hours after CNN, in a story co-authored by Bernstein, reported that then-President-elect Donald Trump had been briefed on the salacious allegations in the dossier on Jan. 6, 2017.

“I met with Mr. Bernstein at Mr. Steele’s request. And I believe Mr. Bernstein had been in touch with Mr. Steele and so Mr. Steele asked me if I would meet with him and talk with him about it. Since Bernstein was in the U.S. and Steele was in London,” said Kramer, who was an executive at the McCain Institute.

https://dailycaller.com/2019/03/14/john-mccain-dossier-steele-reporters/

https://i.imgur.com/uF2nigz.png

https://www.scribd.com/document/401932342/Kramer-Depositioin

Steele passing along the dossier to Kramer, meeting with a reporter, then having Kramer meet with the same reporter to talk to them about it, but 'not giving permission nor requesting media release' is certainly an interesting angle.  FusionGPS/Simpson knew quite well that Kramer was communicating with media about it. 

 

[Henry Ford]

And yet, the person he gave it to at McCain's request paraded it around to a dozen reporters.  Just a wink and a nod and away it went!  

If only it was paraded to Wikileaks.  Then you could support it. 

 

[Sheriff Bart]

https://i.imgur.com/uF2nigz.png

https://www.scribd.com/document/401932342/Kramer-Depositioin

Steele passing along the dossier to Kramer, meeting with a reporter, then having Kramer meet with the same reporter to talk to them about it, but 'not giving permission nor requesting media release' is certainly an interesting angle.  FusionGPS/Simpson knew quite well that Kramer was communicating with media about it. 

Remember before the election when the FBI told both camps that you guys were trying to infiltrate the election and let them know if your comrades contacted them?  Then the Kremlin contacted the Trump camp and not only did they NOT contact the FBI they kept having conversations with those Russians? 

 

[Slapdash]

If only it was paraded to Wikileaks.  Then you could support it. 

Wikileaks would have never published it.

 

[ren hoek]

If only it was paraded to Wikileaks.  Then you could support it. 

Here's what they thought of it:

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/819052898113884163

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/820336256357990403

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/819046407697039362

This isn't really in keeping with WL.  It's falsified, bought information cooked up to push a fake narrative.  It's unlikely they would have published it, or treated it as anything other than the total garbage it turned out to be.  

 

[ren hoek]

Remember before the election when the FBI told both camps that you guys were trying to infiltrate the election and let them know if your comrades contacted them?  Then the Kremlin contacted the Trump camp and not only did they NOT contact the FBI they kept having conversations with those Russians? 

Trump campaign had known and worked with many of "those Russians" for years.  They weren't going to just start ratting out their associates to the FBI because the FBI says so.  Let alone assume that because they were Russian nationals, they must have automatically had something to do with alleged Russian meddling.  This cartoonlike Boris & Natasha depiction of "Russians" doesn't hold water in the real world.  

 

[[scooter]]

Remember before the election when the FBI told both camps that you guys were trying to infiltrate the election and let them know if your comrades contacted them?  Then the Kremlin contacted the Trump camp and not only did they NOT contact the FBI they kept having conversations with those Russians? 

Trump campaign had known and worked with many of "those Russians" for years.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

https://i.imgur.com/uF2nigz.png

https://www.scribd.com/document/401932342/Kramer-Depositioin

Steele passing along the dossier to Kramer, meeting with a reporter, then having Kramer meet with the same reporter to talk to them about it, but 'not giving permission nor requesting media release' is certainly an interesting angle.  FusionGPS/Simpson knew quite well that Kramer was communicating with media about it. 

Thanks for posting the transcript.

What I was trying to distinguish was Kramer sharing the dossier with Buzzfeed vs Buzzfeed publishing it, however it's pretty interesting how this happened.

Bensinger was Kramer's contact at Buzzfeed.

Sorry about the formatting but I think you can follow it. It's pretty obvious to me that Kramer had zero intent this would get out.

Spoiler

· ·Q.·When you were explaining to Mr. Bensinger how it·2· ·came to be that you were in possession of The Memos, did·3· ·you talk to him at all about the unverified nature of·4· ·the information in The Memos?·5· · ·A.·Yes.·I said to him what I had said to the·6· ·others, which is I'm not in a position to verify or·7· ·refute this, but that it seemed to me to be serious·8· ·enough to be looked at in a professional way, and that·9· ·professional journalists were arguably in a position to10· ·look into the matter.·And I stressed to him the11· ·sensitivity of it; that it had to be handled very12· ·carefully.·And he agreed.13· · ·Q.·Did he ask you if he could quote from any of The14· ·Memos in his reporting?15· · ·A.·No.·Not that I recall, no.16· · ·Q.·Did you explain to Mr. Bensinger what Mr. Steele17· ·had said to you, that some of the information was18· ·unverified?19· · ·A.·I'm sorry, say it again.20· · · · · · ·MR. FRAY-WITZER:·Why don't we just --21· · · · · · ·(Thereupon, the requested portion was read22· · · · ·back by the reporter as above recorded.)23· · ·A.·Yes.24· ·BY MR. FRAY-WITZER:25· · ·Q.·If you had known that Mr. Bensinger was going to

Page 64

·1· ·take photographs of The Memos, would you have left him·2· ·alone with them?·3· · · · · · ·MS. BOLGER: Let me object a second.·It's a·4· · · · ·hypothetical question.·5· ·BY MR. FRAY-WITZER:·6· · ·Q.·You can answer.·7· · ·A.·I can answer?·8· · ·Q.·Yes.·9· · ·A.·Probably not, no.10· · ·Q.·If you had known that Buzzfeed would publish The11· ·Memos, would you have given Mr. Bensinger access to12· ·them?13· · · · · · ·MS. BOLGER:·Same objection.14· ·BY MR. FRAY-WITZER:15· · ·Q.·You can answer.16· · ·A.·No.17· · ·Q.·In your conversations with Mr. Bensinger, did you18· ·discuss at all Alex Gubarev?19· · ·A.·No.20· · ·Q.·Did you discuss at all Webzilla?21· · ·A.·No.22· · ·Q.·Did you discuss at all XBT Holdings?23· · ·A.·No.24· · ·Q.·I believe you testified that the first time that25· ·you understood that Mr. Bensinger had taken pictures of

Page 65

·1· ·The Memos was when you learned that they were published·2· ·on Buzzfeed; is that correct?·3· · ·A.·Correct.·4· · · · · · ·MS. BOLGER:·Objection.·Mischaracterizes the·5· · · · ·testimony, but that's okay.·You can answer.·6· · ·A.·Sorry.·Actually, could you repeat it just so·7· ·that I make sure that I understood it correctly.·8· · · · · · ·MR. FRAY-WITZER:·Sure.·Or if you could just·9· · · · ·read it back.10· · · · · · ·(Thereupon, the requested portion was read11· · · · ·back by the reporter as above recorded.)12· · ·A.·Yes.13· ·BY MR. FRAY-WITZER:14· · ·Q.·And I apologize, you testified earlier that you15· ·were in a meeting with someone when CNN first reported16· ·on The Memos; is that correct?17· · ·A.·Um-um.·Correct.18· · ·Q.·Who was that again?19· · ·A.·It was Julian Borger, The Guardian reporter.20· · ·Q.·How did you first come to learn that CNN had21· ·reported on The Memos?22· · ·A.·We were sitting in the lounge area, there was a23· ·big TV with CNN on at the time.·And so as we were24· ·talking, the story literally was breaking before us.25· · ·Q.·What was your reaction when CNN broke the story?

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·1· · ·A.·I believe my words were, "Holy ####."·2· · ·Q.·And did Mr. Borger have any reaction?·3· · ·A.·I think he may have echoed those words.·4· · ·Q.·Do you recall where you were when you first·5· ·learned that Buzzfeed had published The Memos?·6· · ·A.·I had gone back to my office and received a call·7· ·from Mr. Simpson who informed me that they had posted·8· ·it.·9· · ·Q.·To the best of your recollection, what did10· ·Mr. Simpson say specifically?11· · ·A.·There was a very short conversation that I12· ·recall, and he simply said Buzzfeed has posted the13· ·document.14· · ·Q.·And what was your reaction to that?15· · ·A.·I said I will call them and ask them to take it16· ·down.17· · ·Q.·Did you do so?18· · ·A.·I called Mr. Bensinger, and my first words out of19· ·my mouth were you are gonna get people killed.20· · ·Q.·What did Mr. Bensinger say?21· · ·A.·He said why?·How?·And I said by releasing this22· ·-- I had not seen it at that point, but I said by23· ·posting this, you will put people's lives in danger. I24· ·said please take it down, or and he said they will try25· ·to redact some of it.·I then called him back a second

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·1· ·time and asked him to not disclose my name at all.·And·2· ·he said he would not do so.·These were very brief·3· ·conversations.·4· · ·Q.·Did you subsequently speak with anyone else at·5· ·Buzzfeed?·6· · ·A.·No.·7· · ·Q.·Up to the present day, have you spoken with·8· ·anyone at Buzzfeed other than Ken Bensinger?·9· · ·A.·No.

 

[Slapdash]



 

Oops

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

In some cases, according to the deposition, Kramer shared the dossier with reporters with Steele’s and Simpson’s knowledge.

I am really amazed. The DC is being deceptive here. Kramer says explicitly that Simpson and Fusion were not aware.

To be clear - he did not give the dossier to all reporters from what I can tell looking at the deposition. He gave a copy to NPR and he gave a copy to Bernstein. As noted above he did not give a copy to Buzzfeed.

Spoiler

Q.·Prior to providing The Memo to NPR, did you14· ·inform Fusion that you were going to provide The Memo to15· ·NPR?16· · ·A.·No.17· · ·Q.·Did you inform Mr. Steele that you were going to18· ·provide The Memo to NPR?19· · ·A.·No.20· · ·Q.·When you provided it to NPR, did you do so with21· ·the same warnings and cautions that you have talked22· ·about?23· · ·A.·Absolutely.24· · ·Q.·Why did you decide to provide a copy of The Memo25· ·to NPR? ·1· · ·A.·I had been interviewed there the week before, and·2· ·Rachel Martin, who was one of the anchors in the·3· ·morning, had heard talk about it and asked me, and I·4· ·indicated to her that I was aware of it.·And so I·5· ·actually showed it to her first but I did not give her a·6· ·copy.·This was a few days after I did the interview.·7· ·And then she asked if Bob Little could meet with me, and·8· ·we did and I gave him a copy at that time.·9· · ·Q.·Was Fusion aware that you were going to provide a10· ·copy of The Memos to Carl Bernstein?11· · ·A.·Was Fusion aware?·No.·I don't believe so, no.12· · ·Q.·And I believe you said that you provided a copy13· ·to Carl Bernstein at Mr. Steele's request?14· · ·A.·I met with Mr. Bernstein at Mr. Steele's request.15· ·And I believe Mr. Bernstein had been in touch with16· ·Mr. Steele and so Mr. Steele asked me if I would meet17· ·with him and talk with him about it.·Since Bernstein18· ·was in the U.S. and Steele was in London.19· · ·Q.·And when did you meet with Mr. Bernstein?20· · ·A.·I think the first meeting was January 3 or 4.21· ·And I think that there was a follow-up meeting with him22· ·a few days later.·The first one was in New York, the23· ·second one was in Washington.24· · ·Q.·Did you discuss the contents of The Memos with25· ·Mr. Bernstein?

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·1· · ·A.·In that first meeting, I explained to him how I·2· ·had gotten involved, and I said to him -- I said the·3· ·same thing to him that I had said to the others, which·4· ·was I myself was not in a position to verify or·5· ·corroborate any of the material in there, but that I·6· ·felt that it was serious enough that it needed to be·7· ·looked into in a professional way.·

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Ren, just a note - it amazes me that people like Chuck Ross or whoever still get confused by this - Orbis and Steele are not Fusion. Two totally different things going on. What Steele/Orbis did, vs what Simpson/Fusion did. Sloppy writing at best, and that's being charitable.

 

[Henry Ford]

Wikileaks would have never published it.

Not in context. 

They would have published it as “opposition research purchased by the Clinton campaign, intended to discredit Trump and rushed through to beat the election.”  It’s all about context. 

 

[The Narrator]

So parts of the Steele Dossier came from random internet trolls?  Wow. . It seems that people were saying that two years ago wand got shouted down....

two years of Mueller and ####load of Congressional investigations later, why are we we just learning that now, and only from a civil suit completely unrelated to any official government investigation?

This is a total disgrace.  

We elected an internet troll to be the president and this is the bull#### you're worried about? 

 

[ren hoek]

What?  Thinking of Sater, Kilimnik etc.  They had known and worked with them for years.  

It's the same reason people believed, wrongly, that Maria Butina was a Russian spy, juvenile Russian memers swung a billion dollar election, and that Russians were using Pokemon Go to influence children.  Reactionary, alarmist crap that deluded people like @Sheriff Bart and @Slapdash and dozens of others in this thread into seeing a conspiracy where there wasn't one.  

 

[Slapdash]

What?  Thinking of Sater, Kilimnik etc.  They had known and worked with them for years.  

It's the same reason people believed, wrongly, that Maria Butina was a Russian spy, juvenile Russian memers swung a billion dollar election, and that Russians were using Pokemon Go to influence children.  Reactionary, alarmist crap that deluded people like @Sheriff Bart and @Slapdash and dozens of others in this thread into seeing a conspiracy where there wasn't one.  

Known ties that Trump with members of his campaign continually lie and obstruct justice about.  Good to see you finally admitting that.

 

[zoonation]

What?  Thinking of Sater, Kilimnik etc.  They had known and worked with them for years.  

It's the same reason people believed, wrongly, that Maria Butina was a Russian spy, juvenile Russian memers swung a billion dollar election, and that Russians were using Pokemon Go to influence children.  Reactionary, alarmist crap that deluded people like @Sheriff Bart and @Slapdash and dozens of others in this thread into seeing a conspiracy where there wasn't one.  

Right.  That is why the president acts the way he does.  Because there is nothing there.  Checks out.  

 

[Sheriff Bart]

What?  Thinking of Sater, Kilimnik etc.  They had known and worked with them for years.  

It's the same reason people believed, wrongly, that Maria Butina was a Russian spy, juvenile Russian memers swung a billion dollar election, and that Russians were using Pokemon Go to influence children.  Reactionary, alarmist crap that deluded people like @Sheriff Bart and @Slapdash and dozens of others in this thread into seeing a conspiracy where there wasn't one.  

Trump said hundreds of times there was no contact with the Russians. That's a lie by his own affirmation. Why was he lying? Why didn't his camp contact the FBI as instructed?  This is fact, not conspiracy. 

 

[Snorkelson]

It’s funny how the smallest shred of info brings out “this is clearly all a witch hunt” yet the indictments piling up around the president is proof of nothing. 

 

[JuniorNB]

How any American can read Trump's weekend tweets and think he's mentally capable of running this country another four years is beyond me. He is totally unhinged.  

 

[sho nuff]

How any American can read Trump's weekend tweets and think he's mentally capable of running this country another four years is beyond me. He is totally unhinged.  

Yeah but 16 year olds can’t be trusted to vote and people want young people to pass a test before voting.