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More details have emerged about the FBI’s decision to investigate President Trump’s campaign and it appears that the endeavor was even more sketchy than originally thought.
In a series of tweets Thursday, Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel cited reporting from CBS News investigative reporter Catherine Herridge to say that the main source for Christopher Steele’s dossier was a suspected Russian spy who was the subject of a nearly two-year long FBI investigation as a potential “threat to national security.”
The unverified dossier from Steele, an ex-British intelligence agent, was used by the FBI to obtain FISA warrants on Carter Page, the former Trump campaign advisor.
FISA applications that were signed off on at the highest levels of the bureau and the Department of Justice, under President Barack Obama.
1) BREAKING, per @CBS_Herridge and extraordinary.
So Christopher Steele’s main source for the dossier? He was the subject of a nearly two-year long FBI counter-intel investigation (2009-2011), under suspicion of being a Russian spy and a “threat to national security.”— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) September 24, 2020
The reporting is based on a letter Attorney General Bill Barr sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Thursday, in response to the panel’s review into the origins of the Russia probe.
According to Barr, U.S. Attorney John Durham brought the new information to his attention.
What’s more, the sub-source, who has been identified elsewhere as Igor Danchenko, worked for the Brookings Institution, a Democratic think tank.
Fox News’ Gregg Jarrett reported in July that this makes sense “because the president of Brookings at the time was Strobe Talbott: [a] long-time Hillary Clinton ally who was hoping to fuel the collusion narrative and had his own contacts with Christopher Steele.”
3) FBI says he had previously contact with the Russian Embassy and Russian intelligence officers. Thanks to @paulsperry_ we know the name of this subsource, and that he for a period at this time at Brookings, Democratic think tank.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) September 24, 2020
But even more troubling, according to the reporting, the FBI “KNEW it was relying on information from a suspected Russian spy,” Strassel tweeted.
4) But here’s the real kicker, per these documents out from @LindseyGrahamSC The FBI KNEW about this prior CI investigation into the source in DECEMBER OF 2016. It KNEW it was relying on information from a suspected Russian spy!
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) September 24, 2020
Herridge’s reporting, based on Barr’s letter to Graham, is seen here:
#Durham BREAKING: The primary sub-source for the Steele dossier was deemed a possible “national security threat” + the subject of 2009 FBI counter-intel probe. According to new records, those facts were known to Crossfire Hurricane team in December 2016. @LindseyGrahamSC pic.twitter.com/I6Gp4fv98C
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) September 24, 2020
The irony being that those driving the probe of Trump’s campaign used a Russian spy to make that case that Page was a Russian spy — even though he had worked for years as a CIA asset.
“Most importantly: It never told the FISA court about this CI investigation,” Strassel said of the FBI.
6) Most importantly: It never told the FISA court about this CI investigation. It withheld that information and continued re-upping its applications to surveil Page and the campaign. It vouched for information supplied by a suspected Russian agent.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) September 24, 2020
Graham, who released the documents, said in a statement, “To me, failure of the FBI to inform the court that the Primary Sub-source was suspected of being a Russian agent is a breach of every duty owed by law enforcement to the judicial system.”
“The name of this subsource, and the realization of the FBI’s prior suspicions, should have ended the entire probe,” Strassel said in another tweet. “Instead the FBI doubled down, hid things from the court, kept going. This again raises urgent need to know who knew what, and when.”
The compelling question here, as Strassel noted, is why didn’t special counsel Robert Mueller uncover any of this in his two-year Russian collusion investigation that cost taxpayers nearly $40 million?
“Americans deserve to know what happened before they vote,” Strassel concluded.
9) Finally, big credit here to AG Bill Barr and @LindseyGrahamSC for their commitment to truth and transparency. Americans deserve to know what happened before they vote.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) September 24, 2020
The attorney general assured Graham that the release of the information “would not interfere” with Durham’s ongoing criminal investigation — Barr appointed Durham to investigate the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe.
Barr said last month some of Durham’s findings could be revealed before the election.
“We’ll develop this case to the extent we can before the election, and we’ll use our prudent judgment to decide what’s appropriate before the election and what should wait until after the election,” Barr said, according to Fox News.
There was also explosive reporting Thursday from The Federalist’s Sean Davis and Mollie Hemingway that some FBI employees questioned the steps taken in the Trump probe and one agent said those working on the investigation “all went and purchased professional liability insurance.”
Reporting that included text messages showing the FBI was determined to take down Trump “at any cost.”
Needless to say, the bombshell caught the attention of President Trump:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1309235056934875136?s=20
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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