The Steele Dossier And The Fruit Of The Poisoned Tree.

How Russia Gate became ClintonGate Part VII.

Jason Cousineau and Eric Renderking Fisk | November 20th, 2021

What happens in the realm of politics in The United States now that it's common knowledge that The Steele Dossier was a fabricated lie for political purposes? What happens to the reputations of talking heads like Rachel Maddow, Chris Cuomo, and Van Jones now that it's public knowledge that this report is a work of fiction financed by people associated with The Clinton Foundation and high ranking members of The DNC?

How are Republicans going to use this controversy to win back seats in Congress? Can Donald Trump retake The White House with this so-called 'vindication?'

And what happens to the convictions that originated from FISA warrants that were issued based upon these lies from an "anonymous source?"

But first, Jay updates us on his recovery from COVID.

Sited Resources and Links

Substack: "Russiagate has no rock bottom The indictment of the Steele dossier's key source newly humiliates the Clinton campaign, FBI, and US media." Aaron Maté | November 7th, 2021.

... Danchenko is accused of making false statements to the FBI about his role in feeding Trump-Russia allegations to Christopher Steele, a former British spy working for the private intelligence firm Fusion GPS, which in turn was working for the Clinton campaign. Steele's so-called "intelligence reports" were planted in the media to fuel the Trump-Russia collusion narrative. The FBI also used Steele’s work as source material to chase multiple leads and obtain surveillance warrants on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page.

Whereas Steele claimed to have access to "well-placed and established Kremlin sources," his main source was in fact Danchenko, a DC-based Russian expat who had worked for the Brookings Institution, a Beltway (and Clinton-tied) think tank.

In late 2019, Danchenko humiliated the Steele dossier's powerful champions when it emerged that he had informed the FBI, in a January 2017 interview, that corroboration for the Steele dossier's key claims was "zero." This was for good reason: instead of speaking to Kremlin officials, as Steele had claimed, Danchenko told FBI agents that he had instead relied on booze-fueled "hearsay" in his "conversations with friends."

Now it gets worse. Durham's indictment reveals that one of Danchenko's key "sub-sources" was not even Russian, but a U.S. public relations executive with deep ties to none other than Bill and Hillary Clinton. Another purported "sub-source", Sergei Millian, isn’t Russian (he’s from Belarus), but was the former head of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce. But there is one problem: contrary to what Danchenko told the FBI, he and Millian never even spoke.

The indictment also suggests that not only was the FBI aware in 2017 that the Steele dossier was fraudulent, but that its key source, Danchenko, was lying to them. But instead of informing the public and indicting Steele's source, the FBI continued the Trump-Russia investigation and tapped the dossier for it. Anonymous intelligence officials even told the public that Steele's farcical claims were bearing out.

Durham's indictment offers new details on how the farce came to be...

Washinton Post: "FBI once planned to pay former British spy who authored controversial Trump dossier," By Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman | February 28, 2017

The former British spy who authored a controversial dossier on behalf of Donald Trump’s political opponents alleging ties between Trump and Russia reached an agreement with the FBI a few weeks before the election for the bureau to pay him to continue his work, according to several people familiar with the arrangement.

The agreement to compensate former MI6 agent Christopher Steele came as U.S. intelligence agencies reached a consensus that the Russians had interfered in the presidential election by orchestrating hacks of Democratic Party email accounts.

While Trump has derided the dossier as “fake news” compiled by his political opponents, the FBI’s arrangement with Steele shows that the bureau considered him credible and found his information, while unproved, to be worthy of further investigation..."

Washinton Post: "Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier," By Adam Entous, Devlin Barrett and Rosalind S. Helderman | October 24, 2017

The Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund research that resulted in a now-famous dossier containing allegations about President Trump’s connections to Russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin, people familiar with the matter said. Marc E. Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington firm, to conduct the research. After that, Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with ties to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Elias and his law firm, Perkins Coie, retained the company in April 2016 on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Before that agreement, Fusion GPS’s research into Trump was funded by an unknown Republican client during the GOP primary.

CNBC: "Durham probe: Analyst charged with lying to FBI about Christopher Steele’s Trump-Russia dossier," Dan Mangan and Kevin Breuninger | November 4th, 2021

A Russia analyst who contributed key research to the so-called Steele dossier that detailed alleged ties between ex-President Donald Trump and Russia during the 2016 election was arrested Thursday as part of a probe by special counsel John Durham.

Igor Danchenko, the analyst, was charged in a grand jury indictment with five counts of making false statements to FBI agents during several interviews with agents in 2017 about his work providing information to former British spy Christopher Steele for the dossier.

Steele’s controversial dossier on Trump became the basis for the application of an FBI warrant to tap the phone of former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page a month before Election Day in 2016

Steele’s inquiry was funded by the firm Fusion GPS, which itself had been hired by the Democratic National Committee to conduct opposition research on the then-Republican candidate Trump.

Danchenko, 43, is the third person criminally charged in Durham’s investigation, which is focused on the origins of the federal probe into the Trump campaign’s suspected coordination with Russian agents to influence the outcome of the 2016 race for the White House.

The Department of Justice said that Danchenko, a Russian national who lives in Virginia, was taken into custody Thursday morning. He later appeared in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, where he reportedly was released on a $100,000 bond.

Reuters: "Attorney who advised Clinton campaign indicted in U.S. Trump-Russia probe," By Sarah N. Lynch

A cybersecurity attorney known for his work advising Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign was indicted on Thursday for lying to the FBI, as part of U.S. Special Counsel John Durham's probe into the origins of the FBI investigation of ties between Russia and former President Donald Trump's campaign.

Michael Sussmann, a former partner with Perkins Coie who also represented the Democratic National Committee and Clinton's campaign in connection with Russia's hack of the organization, is accused of making false statements during a Sept. 19, 2016, meeting with former FBI General Counsel James Baker.

The indictment accuses Sussmann of falsely telling Baker he did not represent any client when he met him to give the FBI white papers and other data files containing evidence of questionable cyber links between the Trump Organization and a Russian-based bank.

The indictment alleges that Sussmann turned over that information not as a "good citizen" but as an attorney representing a U.S. technology executive, an internet company and Clinton's presidential campaign...

... The indictment alleges that some other materials Sussmann handed over to the FBI included a paper prepared by an investigative firm.

The indictment does not identify the firm, but a source familiar with the events told Reuters it is Fusion GPS, the Washington-based firm that hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to conduct opposition research on Trump on behalf of the Clinton campaign.

New York Post: "Anatomy of a media hit job — how press pushed Clinton’s lies against Trump," By Post Editorial Board November 9, 2021

Russiagate has fallen apart, with special counsel John Durham exposing the notorious Steele Dossier as a collection of lies and made-up stories. But you wouldn’t know it by reading most of the media, which have mostly ignored the story.

More importantly, they haven’t faced up to their own part in pushing this witch hunt. Relying on one anonymous source — ex-British spy Christopher Steele — they spun a supposed conspiracy between Donald Trump and Russia. But they never revealed the fact that Steele was being paid by Hillary Clinton’s campaign for opposition research, and they never examined Steele’s sources, who were unreliable or nonexistent.

Here’s how the media amplified Steele’s baseless claims to create hysteria. None of these stories have been updated, no corrections have been made.