Thread by @karolcummins

💣B O O M💣

FBI releases records of Justice Dept. official Bruce Ohr interviews about Russia probe - The Washington Post washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Heavily redacted FBI memos released show that while the FBI formally cut ties with a former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, agents quietly sought to reestablish contact as the case heated up.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

The released documents are formal FBI interview memos of agents’ conversations with Bruce Ohr, a senior Justice Department official who has drawn the ire of President Trump for his connections to Christopher Steele
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

🔑Steele is a fmr British spy with an expertise in Russia wrote a dossier of allegations against Trump in 2016.

🔑The general thrust of Steele’s allegations was that then-candidate Trump was secretly aligned w/ RU officials & could be manipulated by them.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Ohr, a relatively obscure Justice Department employee for more than 20 years, became a focus of Republicans in Congress after they learned of his interactions with Steele, and the Washington, D.C.-based research firm that hired Steele, Fusion GPS.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Trump has called for Ohr to be fired over his involvement in the Russia investigation.

Last year, the president tweeted: “How the hell is Bruce Ohr still employed at the Justice Department? Disgraceful! Witch Hunt!”🙄
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

🔑However, the real reason GOP & Trump hate Bruce Ohr, is because he was the one who told Semyon Mogilevich’s attorney to pound sand.

When a lawyer for one of Russia’s most powerful reputed crime bosses arrived at FBI HQ (2006), he wanted to cut a deal.
nytimes.com/2018/08/27/us/…

“The Russian, Semion Y. Mogilevich, had been indicted three years earlier by the department on charges of defrauding a company outside Philadelphia out of $150 million”

nytimes.com/2018/08/27/us/…

“Finally, the F.B.I. agent spoke. No deal, he said, Mr. Mogilevich must surrender. Mr. BRUCE OHR said little, but his unwillingness to negotiate was signal enough: The DOJ would not compromise with the Russian mafia.”
2018/08/27/us/politics/bruce-ohr-
nytimes.com/trump-justice-…

Link: nytimes.com/2018/08/27/us/…

‼️Firtash & Mogilevich

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1142649621178511360?s=21

‼️Ohr’s Memos

One of the FBI documents released Thursday night suggested Ohr told agents he didn’t assume what Steele was telling him was true.

“There are always Russian conspiracy theories that come from the Kremlin,” the memo said Ohr told agents.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Intel experts considered the Steel Dossier as raw HUMINT—a human told story, then nothing more & early (2017) estimates placed its likely veracity at 87%, because of Steele’s background & credentials as a RU mob expert. Steel led the FIFA investigation. washingtonpost.com/news/early-lea…

When the Steele Dossier was received it was viewed as probable cause to begin investigating its veracity—not Trump per se as RW media contends & has spent gallons of ink trying to convince their readers, because they FEAR its contents.

Origin of the CSD:

It has long been known that Fusion GPS was first hired by REPUBLICANS, but it was not known who was the source of the funding.

At the heart of the story is Fusion GPS, a Washington-based research firm founded by former @wsj employees.
nytimes.com/2017/10/27/us/…

The Free Beacon, funded in large part by the New York hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, hired the firm, Fusion GPS, in 2015 to unearth damaging information about several Republican presidential candidates, including Mr. Trump.
nytimes.com/2017/10/27/us/…

But The Free Beacon told the firm to stop doing research on Mr. Trump in May 2016, as Mr. Trump was clinching the Republican nomination.
nytimes.com/2017/10/27/us/…

📌In April 2016, Mark Elias, the lawyer for both the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign, picked up the contract; after news of the DNC hack emerged in June 2016, Fusion GPS hired Steele’s firm Orbis Business Intelligence.

nytimes.com/2017/10/24/us/….

Steele filed his first report to the private-investigation firm Fusion GPS on June 20, 2016. The first dispatch mainly concerned the RU Federal Security Service, commonly known as the FSB, & its cyber operations, & makes NO mention of the Trump campaign.
themoscowproject.org/dossier/

BTW Christopher Steele headed the FIFA Investigation and yes, IT IS RELATED!

Christopher Steele is credible. Steele was not just a former UK MI-6 officer; he also worked on behalf of the FBI in the successful FIFA investigation

washingtonpost.com/news/early-lea…

🔑FIFA awarded those tournaments to RUSSIA (2018) and QATAR (2022), respectively, amid accusations of bribery & other corrupt dealings. The U.S. worked with Swiss authorities, and has brought indictments against more than 30 people in an ONGOING probe.
washingtonpost.com/news/early-lea…

CSD: The first allegation of an “extensive conspiracy between Trump’s campaign team and the Kremlin” came in Steele’s second report, in which Steele wrote that there is an “agreed exchange of information established in both directions”
themoscowproject.org/dossier/

That “was managed on the TRUMP side by the Republican candidate’s campaign manager, Paul MANAFORT, who was using foreign policy advisor, Carter PAGE, and others as intermediaries.”
themoscowproject.org/dossier/

Steele also wrote that a “TRUMP associate admits Kremlin behind recent appearance of DNC e-mails on WikiLeaks, as means of maintaining plausible deniability,” information that did not become public until the next day.
themoscowproject.org/dossier/

Spy Agency Consensus Grows That Russia Hacked D.N.C.
nytimes.com/2016/07/27/us/…

A declassified summary of a highly sensitive report by American intel agencies was released on 1/17/17. It concluded that Putin of Russia ordered an effort to disrupt the 2016 election, including cyberattacks on the email accounts & computers of DEM Party
nytimes.com/interactive/20…

The FBI reportedly received parts of the dossier not only before the public learned of it in January 2017, but also before Steele filed his final report on October 19, 2016.
themoscowproject.org/collusion/mcca…

Early in August 2016, FBI agents in Rome reportedly received a copy of Steele’s first two reports.
themoscowproject.org/collusion/mcca…

The dossier’s existence was first reported more than two months later, on October 31, when David Corn of Mother Jones wrote that “a former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence …
themoscowproject.org/collusion/mcca…

provided the bureau with memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist Trump—and that the FBI requested more information from him.”
themoscowproject.org/collusion/mcca…

McCain was not made aware of the Steele dossier until Nov. 18, 2016 — after Trump had won the election.
washingtonpost.com/politics/sen-l…

By December 2016, the completed document had made its way to Senator John McCain, who turned it over to FBI Director James Comey on December 9.
themoscowproject.org/collusion/mcca…

Former State Department official David Kramer, an executive at the McCain Institute, met with BuzzFeed reporter Ken Bensinger on Dec. 29, 2016.
BuzzFeed published the dossier less than two weeks later, on Jan. 10, 2017, after getting it from Kramer.
washingtonexaminer.com/news/john-mcca…

🔑Trump and House Republicans are declassifying documents to falsely allege the campaign aide was spied on by Hillary Clinton partisans,

🔑BUT THE FBI HAD BEEN INVESTIGATIONG PAGE’s TIES TO RUSSIA FOR YEARS!
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

The FBI's surveillance of Page began in October 2016 and continued at least until the summer of 2017
businessinsider.com/trump-declassi…

Carter Page FISA Documents Are Released by Justice Department
nytimes.com/2018/07/21/us/…

MANAFORT FISA WARRANT late 2014 to early 2016!!

Is it any wonder the FBI’s antennae was pinged when in March 16 Trump hired Manafort as his campaign Manager?

This was a period when Manafort was known to talk to Trump.😎
cnn.com/2017/09/18/pol…

I digressed, back to Bruce Ohr Article:

“Ohr honestly believes (redacted) reported what he heard from (redacted) but that doesn’t make the story true,” the memo said, in apparent reference to Steele.

As I pointed out above. #HUMINT
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Another FBI memo— Dec 2016 — suggests Steele shared his allegations with a reporter (David Corn) in the fall of 2016 because the person who hired him to investigate Trump, Glenn Simpson, was desperate to get people to pay attention to the Dossier.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

“Simpson asked (redacted) to speak to the Mother Jones reporter (David Corn) as it was Simpson’s Hail Mary attempt,” the memo said.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

David Corn’s 2016 Article:

A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump
motherjones.com/politics/2016/…

That article spurred FBI officials to cut ties with Steele as an official source of information, but the memos show that Ohr acted as an unofficial conduit between the FBI and the British investigator for months afterward
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

In February, during another debriefing with Ohr about Steele, FBI agents “asked OHR to ask Steele if he would be comfortable getting the name of an FBI agent” to contact, according to a memo of the conversation.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

The president and his supporters have argued that the dossier gathered by Steele was a pile of lies meant to derail his candidacy, and then his presidency. 🙄🙄🙄
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Democrats accuse Trump of trying to destroy the careers of anyone who participated in the investigation of possible conspiracy between Trump associates and Russians during the election.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Steele and Ohr have known each other since at least 2007, when Steele was a top Russia expert in British intel. In 2016, Steele was hired by Fusion GPS to probe Trump’s background.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

The firm (Fusion GPS) also employed Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, as a contractor with expertise on Russia.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

📌In the summer of 2016, Steele decided his findings should be shared with the FBI, and contacted an associate at the bureau.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

In the summer of 2016, Steele decided his findings should be shared with the FBI, and contacted an associate at the bureau. Months
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

📌Months later, Steele became frustrated that the FBI seemed not to be acting on his tips, and shared some of his findings with the press (David Corn), leading the FBI to sever its relationship with Steele.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

🔑In the fall of 2016, Steele’s allegations were used as part of the justification for seeking a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order to secretly monitor the electronic communications of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser the FBI.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Cater Page mention in Steele Dossier

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1149803136057352192?s=21

💰Qatar - Russia/Rosnef - Qatari Sovereign Wealth Fund & TeamTrump

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1149801026242744320?s=21

After the FBI formally broke off ties with Steele, Ohr stayed in touch with him, and relayed what Steele told him to FBI agents. The FBI interview memos released Thursday memorialize those conversations between Ohr and the FBI about Steele.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Ohr, 56, began his career in 1991 as a Manhattan federal prosecutor and moved to Washington in 1999 as head of the Justice Department’s organized crime and racketeering section.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

In 2014, he was tapped to head the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, which disburses grant money to law enforcement agencies to fight organized crime.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

🔑Some of Trump’s favorite targets in the Russia probe have spent their careers in the Justice Department and the FBI investigating organized crime and money laundering, particularly as they pertain to Russia.

📌Get it?
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…

Questions about his role in the Russia probe first emerged in late 2017, and he was demoted to a job that did not entail interaction with the White House, and later transferred.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Ohr has told lawmakers that one reason for his reassignment was his failure to notify leadership, including then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, of his interaction with Steele.
He had a dozen communications with Steele between late 2016 and May 2017.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

During that period, Steele was also growing concerned that Republican lawmakers were seeking to expose his sources and asked Ohr to convey his concerns to the bureau.
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

Russian diplomats keep dying unexpectedly

🔑Did Republicans leak the contents of the Steel Dossier to their Russian contacts?
axios.com/russian-diplom…

Nine months, nine prominent Russians dead
cnn.com/2017/03/24/eur…

If the Steele Dossier is nothing more than a HRC cootie infected hit piece as RW media allege at every opportunity, why the bloody trail dead Russians beginning in December 2016?

Example by @KimStrassel

wsj.com/articles/what-…

How the ex-spy (Christopher Steele) tried to warn the world about Trump’s ties to Russia.
newyorker.com/magazine/2018/…

Trump Tower Server:

https://twitter.com/rani_yachts/status/1159841979452145665?s=21

Trump Tower Server

https://twitter.com/rani_yachts/status/1159843969544511488?s=21

Was a Trump Tower server communicating with Russia?
slate.com/articles/news_…

Trump’s Server, Revisited
Sorting through the new evidence, and competing theories, about the Trump server that appeared to be communicating with a Russian bank.
slate.com/news-and-polit…

Was There a Connection Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?

A team of computer scientists sifted through records of unusual Web traffic in search of answers.
newyorker.com/magazine/2018/…

Major Alfa Bank-Trump Tower Breakthrough
teapainusa.wordpress.com/2018/06/05/maj…

On May 4th, 2016, a Server located at Trump Tower began connecting to an Alfa Bank server
medium.com/@Felt/grand-th…

Alfa Bank, Trump Tower and a Social Media Impeachment
patribotics.blog/2017/04/01/alf…

MSM has been deafeningly silent on the subject of the communications (packet data) exchanged between the Trump Tower server with the Alfa Bank & Spectrum Health (DeVos) Servers.

GLOMAR - ongoing investigation.

Stay tuned much more to be revealed.

@threadreaderapp unroll please and thank you.

#BruceOhr
#SteeleDossier
#ChristopherSteele
#FBI
#TrumpTowerServer

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1159888345712881664?s=21

‼️Origin:

(Pre Steele Dossier)

TrumpRussia Investigation

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1131968905499488256?s=21