1/ Papadop fanboys nearly all misunderstand why I'm so critical. I disbelieved Steele dossier on its face and, very early on, decided that Comey was a liar, and, relatively early on, that Brennan had been dangling breadcrumbs to FBI, turning Comey after election.
2/ if Mifsud, Sambei, LCILP and Downer were part of some elaborate conspiracy to set up Papadop, then it will be relatively trivial to expose everything. If that happens, I'd enjoy the popcorn as much as anyone and be happy to eat crow on my doubts on this aspect of events.
3/ but there's a real possibility (almost certainty in my opinion), that there was very serious misconduct by intel community, but that Mifsud-Sambei-LCILP-Downer were not part of any conspiracy and that Papadop, a serial liar, is once again misdirecting everyone
4/ the risk in going a bridge too far with Papadop allegations is this: defenders of intel community misconduct are very smart; they will seize on the weakest element in the case against them and mercilessly expose it as a sort of vaccination of wider public against valid charges
5/ I've encountered this in climate controversy. There are some skeptics who invariably go a bridge too far. They are easy targets and are used to discredit valid critiques.
6/ If you're playing high-stakes hardball, you have to play more or less error-free ball. That's why it's important to be very self-critical and why I'm so adamant in not being over-exposed on someone as unreliable as Papadop, a serial liar.
7/ I think that the conspiracy against Flynn was very real and that sunshine is sorely needed and that this, not Papadop/Mifsud, will start the unraveling of the FBI phase of the misconduct.
8/ the other priority ought to be investigation of the fabrication of the Steele dossier. It is a scandal that we do not know whether fabrications were by Russian state disinformation, Fusion GPS contractors, UK, Ukraine, Russian diaspora opposed to Putin, or all of above.
9/ various commentators are arguing in favor of Papadop. Sorry, I've discussed Papadop enough; anyone interested in my views is welcome to do Twitter-search. Let me re-iterate my point: I'll enjoy the popcorn if (what appear to me to be implausible) Papadop fantasies are proven
10/ and I'll admit that I was wrong. However, nothing can change the fact that Papadop is a serial liar and that it is unwise to over-invest in a narrative in which key elements depend entirely on Papadop's sayso and which have not and cannot be verified. I say this because
11/ I have thought that Russiagate was corrupt from early on - almost certainly much longer than anyone else commenting on this thread or any of the Papadop fans.
