Stephen McIntyre Profile picture

Jan 20, 2021, 24 tweets

Solomon has just published first supposed drop from much ballyhooed declassification. justthenews.com/accountability…. A slightly varied redaction of agent notes on Steele's Oct 2017 interview that were already published by Grassley on Dec 3, 2020 hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…

What BS.

2/ to show the obstinacy of intel agency bureaucrats, redactions on first page of 2021 version (right) are GREATER than corresponding section of prior version. Unbelievable. (There is some microscopic new info, which I'll parse.)

3/ top of page 2. Left- old. Right -new. Some already public material redacted. Tillerson name unredacted. Uninformative unredaction about former Steele network.

4/ bottom page 2. Fiona Hill's role in introducing Danchenko to Steele is getting some oxygen, but we knew that already from Danchenko's interview last summer.

5/ page 3. A few new scraps unredacted. This concerns information about Prague attributed to Danchenko's school BFF from Perm, Olga Galkina, who had been working in Cyprus for a webhosting service (but had quit in a dispute).

6/ bottom page 3. useless scrap unredacted.

Keep in mind that big allegations (collusion) were attributed to Source D/E, located in the US, where Steele had directed Danchenko to carry out domestic espionage. We'll see if FBI asks him about this as we parse.

7/ top page 4. uninformative questioning and equally uninformative scrap of unredaction.

8/ bot page 4. In previous (& this) version, Steele says that he got info from PSS "and another source". In court, as I recall, Steele consistently said that all his information came from PSS. Carter Page info came from Podobedova; supposed Govorun and Peskov info from Galkina

9/ top page 5. Nothing new from December. Nothing about construction of dossier. Throat clearing.

10/ bottom page 5. some new information on Orbis' activities in 2017 - who cares. An "important" new unredaction. We now know that there are "people" in the Orbis office. This detail previously redacted. Nothing useful in this half-page,

11/ top page 6. A new and interesting detail that was redacted in December. Steele says that Fiona Hill knew of Danchenko's involvement in dossier and that Danchenko contacted her in early 2017 when he went to ground. Hmmm - what was Hill's testimony on this?

12/ bottom page 6. Another interesting new detail. Steele/Danchenko did "report" (presumably more smear that appealed to US and UK intel) that Russia had told Trump transition that Romney unacceptable as Sec'y of State. From whom? "Galkina" or just made up.

13/ top page 7. Remains more or less totally redacted. After pondering by dozens of bureaucrats and lawyers, they grudgingly unredacted the word "wit." and "He kne..".

14/ bottom page 7. Steele has a "new" PSS. (This may explain apparent inconsistency earlier). The new PSS is providing Curveball-level spy pornography in which Ukrainians feed US fantasies.

15/ top page 8. Almost total redacted. Small detail alluded to above: Steele reached out to Fiona Hill in Feb 2017 to check on Danchenko after Danchenko went to ground.

16/ bottom page 8. some unredaction about details peripheral to dossier. Erovkin killing. Interesting mention of Cody Shearer dossier, which Steele says here was a "dangle".

17/ page 9. irrelevant.

A comment on Cody Shearer nonsense is unredacted.

18/ overall, the questioning of Steele was totally useless.

The big issue as of October 2017 was the inconsistency between the Danchenko interview in Jan 2017 and assertions in Steele dossier. There wasn't a SINGLE question on these issues.

19/ also there wasn't a SINGLE question about Danchenko's statement to FBI that he never met Millian, whereas the most damning information in dossier was attributed to "Millian". Who was framed by some combination of Steele and/or Danchenko.

20/ it's hard to believe that FBI was so totally incompetent. On the other hand, US intel agencies have an increasingly long record of being bamboozled by Curveballs and Screwballs, but the uselessness of SIA Brian Auten and his SA sidekick defies credulity.

21/ Trump vs bureaucracy. Trump tricked once again. The ultimate Charlie Brown.

22/ in other news, NYT reports (buried in another article)
nytimes.com/2021/01/19/us/… that Durham has closed investigation into leak of classified information to WaPo about Flynn call, saying that "investigators found no wrongdoing". Puh-leeze.

23/ the leak of classified information was clear cut "wrongdoing". The FBI may have been unable or unwilling to figure out who committed the crime - after all, Peter Strzok was in charge of crime scene at the time - but don't say that there was "no wrongdoing".

Let me clarify. The 302 appears to contain redacted references to Millian. I'll cross-check vs the Analyst notes later.

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