Solomon has published two new documents, only one of which is listed on his Dig Here page justthenews.com/sites/default/…. and is rehash of notes released by Grassley in Dec. See my thread here
Some new info in other doc justthenews.com/sites/default/…
https://twitter.com/ClimateAudit/status/1351725398762139648
Some new info in other doc justthenews.com/sites/default/…
2/ Solomon said that the 302 of the Steele October 2017 is the "first" declassified document. Solomon told Lou Dobbs yesterday that he would be up all night with the releases. Morning has come and thus far. the 302 is the ONLY declassification. 
3/ most of the content of the 302 was already known from the (redacted) SIA notes on the Steele Oct 2017 interview which were published in December 2020 and slightly, and mostly irrelevantly, less redacted in this version.
4/ the October 2017 Steele 302 is relevant, but mostly shows the uselessness of FBI questioning and their total and incompentent subject matter knowledge. In particular, they didn't challenge - or even ask Steele about inconsistencies between Danchenko interview and dossier.
5/ we still haven't seen ANYTHING on, for example, Steele's original Oct 2016 interview with FBI, Danchenko's two subsequent interviews with FBI, the intel memos on Danchenko interview, attribution of DNC hack to Russia, on and on..
6/ if we don't see anything more, Trump's declassification is as fraudulent as his pardon list. Either he capitulated out of fear of the Senate vote on impeachment or he's the useless fraud that his opponents have portrayed.
8/ without ANY enthusiasm, I'm going through the 302 vs the previously released Agent Notes to see if anything new and/or left out in 302. First two paragraphs more or less correspond.
9/ Steele wanted to be sure that information from his Oct 2017 interview would go "straight to Mueller", not just FBI. SIA Auten and SSA [Woodbery] (my interpolation - Woodbery was SSA in London who was ALAT, also pal of Strzok, former CoS for Priestap) re-assured them.
10/ this is interesting: Steele was concerned about inclusion of their (fraudulent) material in the ICA - an issue that was FAR more important than the Carter Page FISA issue which Gonna Graham promoted as big issue to distract attention and gaslight.
11/ Steele (and Burrows) rightly regarded use of Steele dossier in ICA (and immediate illegal leak to media to undermine incoming Trump administration) as an important issue and raised it repeatedly - a big point OMITTED from 302.
12/ statement that Steele and Burrows regarded Trump as their "main opponent" ought to have raised FARA issues, but didn't. This statement in 302 has raised eyebrows, but was already known from Dec 2020 release.
13/ next few points in 302 track Auten's notes (slight change in order). Confirms that Danchenko had been source of prior reports (some of which we've seen from State Dept productions. They are porn for intel agencies - fantasies that fulfil intel agency desire.)
14/ I'm skipping one paragraph before coming back to it for reasons that will become clear. Steele hadn't heard of Page, Cohen, Papadop; had been working on Manafort. Had heard of Tillerson - redacted in 302, but not in Auten's notes.
15/ Auten's redacted notes conspicuously did not contain ANY mention of Sergei Millian, who was framed by Steele and/or Danchenko. But Millian is known to have been mentioned by Steele to FBI and appears (my interpolation below) to be mentioned in 302 paragraph, redacted in Auten
16/ a note on this interpolation and Steele's lie to FBI. The redaction in first line in 14 characters with 7-character surname. We KNOW that Danchenko told FBI that he heard Ritz Carlton rumor from Ivan Vorontsov, but couldn't confirm it.
17/ Both Ivan Vorontsov and Sergei Millian are 14 characters. But surname (5th line) is 7 characters, excluding Vorontsov. We KNOW that Steele had (falsely) named Millian as source in 2016. W
18/ We also KNOW that Danchenko had not heard of Millian in June 2016, attempted to initiate contact by email on July 21 (while Millian in Asia), that Danchenko NEVER met Millian and told this to FBI.
19/ nonetheless, FBI, a year later, sat like doorknobs while Steele once again (falsely) told them that Millian had been source for Ritz Carlton story which Danchenko attributed as unconfirmed from Vorontsov. This was low-hanging fruit on which FBI ought to have challenged Steele
20/ but the doorknobs let Steele continue unchallenged. As detectives, more like Ace Ventura than Colombo. Without Ace Ventura's acumen.
21/ Steele was then asked about his validation. He claimed to know the "current positions" of PSS' "sub-soubsources". No details here. Galkina, the most important sub-subsource, was then in Cyprus as an unemployed former employee of a webserver company in a bitter custody dispute
22/ did FBI doorknobs inquire as to how Galkina in Cyprus was privy to Putin's innermost secrets that had eluded CIA for years? More likely, Steele dangled big names, all real people but not actual sources. As Yuri Shvets pointed out within days of Steele dossier publication.
23/ Steele (falsely) told FBI that he "confirmed" Danchenko's reporting through "other sources". Zero evidence of that for Steele dossier. Who "confirmed" the collusion allegation? Nobody. Who confirmed Sechin-Page meeting. Nobody.
24/ next, Steele rambled that Orbis had four discrete networks. New agent assigned to Russia. A source whose description is unaccountably redacted in 302, but who is described in notes as looking at Rybololvev (discussed later in 302.) Prob funded by Dan Jones' Dem oligarchs.
25/ this next is outrageous. Steele, trying to coax PSS, said Danchenko "coming along with idea of talking to" Mueller but wasnt there yet. Compare to Mueller intimidation of witnesses in Trump orbit.
Dig-here: looks like Mueller lawyers NEVER interviewed Danchenko (or Steele).
Dig-here: looks like Mueller lawyers NEVER interviewed Danchenko (or Steele).
26/ next, the publicized story about Fiona Hill having introduced Danchenko to Steele ~2011. I deduced this from the Danchenko interview last summer, so this ought not to be regarded as "news", tho confirmation is welcome.
27/ next, a redacted and tantalizing paragraph to do with Ukraine. "someone who was Ukrainian could possibly have the type of access his source has".
What does this mean? Why is it redacted? Looks very suspicious.
What does this mean? Why is it redacted? Looks very suspicious.
28/ next some chitchat about Danchenko's travel experience while spying in Russia irrelevant to main Russiagate issues.
29/ Steele said that they "destroyed materials for legal reasons". What was legal reason? Looks more like bigger obstruction of justice than any of Mueller's actual charges.
30/ Steele also told FBI that he took three trips [to US] in 2016. We KNOW that Steele met Perkins Coie on Jul 29, Yahoo and others on Sep 23 and Kavalec et al on Oct 11. He told FBI that he "talked with his subsource" on these trips.
31/ it seems obvious that Steele met with Danchenko while he was in US as Danchenko lived in northern Virginia, but FBI didn't ask Danchenko about his meetings with Steele in US, even tho it pertained to their purported espionage on Trump in US (not just "Russia").
32/ for example, Steele's explosive and mendacious Report 95 must have been written on or about Jul 27-28, just prior to his Jul 29 meeting with Perkins Coie. How exactly and when did Danchenko convey information from "Millian" to Steele? FBI doorknobs didn't ask.
33/ continuing. Steele told FBI Orbis had obtained audio of conversation between Danchenko & [Olga Galkina] regarding (false) information re Cohen meeting in Prague. Steele said they didn't have original audio "in original form", but had transcription. Galkina maybe "coming in".
34/ Horowitz report indicated that Galkina had been interviewed in August 2017 - prior to Steele interview, but we havent seen Galkina interview. FBI doesn't seem to have asked Steele to provide Galkina transcript.
35/ Steele told FBI that Danchenko sub-sources had "serious access to named people REDACTED tight circles". Uh, huh. Vorontsov. Galkina who did PR for webserver in Cyprus. Did either of them really have "serious access"? Pretty questionable.
36/ next, an unredacted paragraph discussing Orbis' prior involvement with Manafort. This was litigation against Manafort by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who had helped FBI in Levinson case. Steele's story on start of relationship with Fusion is a bit different than Simpson
37/ Steele is known to have gone to Cyprus around July 6-13, 2016 - after meeting Gaeta in London. Steele reported being briefed about Rubolovlev. Redaction can be infilled as "early July". Not related to dossier.
38/ this next is important. Almost totally redacted in both Auten notes and 302. But it contains important admission by Steele to FBI that he and Danchenko were carrying out espionage in US ("bit of work in the United States"). As we know, it involved "Millian".
39/ beneath the redactions, there appear to be a couple of important lies. Steele says that PSS "was introduced REDACTED", that the PSS "met REDACTED" and PSS "and [Millian] discussed REDACTED". We KNOW that Danchenko and Millian NEVER met. This is all false information.
40/ that Danchenko never met Danchenko was KNOWN to FBI since January 2017 interview in which Auten participated. So FBI KNEW that these statements by Steele were untrue but FBI Ace Venturas didn't confront Steele on falsehoods.
41/ Steele further embellished his false claims about Danchenko meetings with Millian by claiming that he had seen "some documentation" and that REDACTED wasn't "notional". Outrageous that loser Trump failed to unredact this important material.
42/ Steele then drew a diagram of the sub-source network, said to have been attached to the 302. Diagram was withheld by bureaucrats, as petty defiance.
43/ Steele's description of sources on Carter Page contained false information. Existence of supposed Sechin meeting came from RBC reporter Lyudmila Podobedova, but on Diveykin came from Galkina. For details, check tweets by FN and myself in late July. FBI didnt challenge "error"
44/ also, and this is important: while Danchenko network gave (false) information on existence of meetings, the vivid details in Steele dossier about the "meetings" are wildly embellished from Danchenko's account. E.g implausible 19.5% brokerage fee.
45/ my own surmise is that Steele (or someone in his office) constructed a fantasy on sparse framework of (untrue) information from Danchenko. The embellishments were known to FBI but it did not require an accounting from Steele for embellishments.
46/ continuing this thread: FBI asked about reporting about Oleg Govurun, which Steele ascribed to redacted subsource.
47. Govurun was mentioned in Steele #112 as a supposed bagman in St Petersburg between Alfa bank and Putin. Alfa Bank officials Aven and Fridman sued Steele for libel.
48/ Danchenko touched on Report #112 only in passing but comment interesting: he said that topic "hearkens back" to his time at Brookings with Clifford Gaddy (and Fiona Hill). In both interviews (Danchenko, Steele), FBI immediately segued to new topic.
49/ they segued to brief discussion of reporting about Peskov. In context, that had little to nothing to do with collusion allegations and was little more than background chickenfeed into which the big allegations were dropped. Name redacted in both.
50/ in Danchenko interview, source relating to Peskov was SOURCE 3, who we've identified as Olga Galkina, then recently working in PR in Cyprus for a webserver company.
51/ character count in Steele 302 doesn't match to Galkina in any way that I can thus far figure out. Steele's practice appears to have been to claim that known and important people were his sub-sources (as opposed to Galkina and Vorontsov.)
52/ then some discussion about Steele's decision to talk to Mother Jones. He said that Fusion pressured Steele to do so. Steele's regret was that the fallout disrupted his ability to feed information into FBI.
53/ something interesting: Ohr knew abt Steele's Oct 2017 meeting with Steele, who had "reached out" to both Ohr and Simpson about PSS. Up to May 2017, Ohr had immediately notified FBI of his contacts with Steele. These 302s STOP on May 16, 2017. At start of Mueller investigation
54/ Ohr and Steele had talk on Aug 7, 2017 and again on Sep 9, 2017, a week before Steele's 2nd interview with FBI. Did Ohr memorialize these two calls for FBI and Mueller? If not, why not?
55/ next, they return to question of whether PSS Danchenko will choose to honor the Special Counsel with his presence. Other people were given subpoenas or jackboots at dawn. But Danchenko seems to have had choice. In the end, Mueller doesn't appear to have interviewed PSS.
56/ next they discuss PSS' "tradecraft", with Steele emphasizing supposed precautions. However, Danchenko's "tradecraft" included open line cell phone conversation with Galkina in mid-July while he was at a public swimming pool. Probably Volta or Francis pools in Georgetown.
57/ Seems hard to believe that Danchenko and/or Galkina wouldn't be persons of interest to both western and Russian intelligence. Or that unencrypted international cell phone calls weren't intercepted. GCHQ has huge collection center in Cyprus where Galkina was located.
58/ FBI and Steele then return to Fiona Hill. Steele said that he contacted Hill in Feb 2017 after Danchenko went to ground and surmised that Hill "guesses" that Danchenko was involved in dossier. Then a redacted comment about Danchenko in context of Hill and Brookings.
59/ FBI had doubled back to Fiona Hill. Now they doubled back to validation of PSS and possibility that PSS is under "control" of some other agency. Steele says not, though he "cannot guarantee" that subsources "aren't under control".
60/ next paragraph almost totally/totally redacted in both 302 and notes. Means that it's prob interesting. What is it? Something about sharing "election-related reports". Involving someone that he "knew from his previous career" who has 11 letters in names (12 with space).
61/ There's a very delicious candidate, who fits both on character count and as someone Steele knew from previous career: Pablo Miller, who came into public view at time of Skripal poisoning. Would be very big deal if Miller placed with Steele in 302.
eurotrib.com/story/2018/5/2…
eurotrib.com/story/2018/5/2…
62/ next 302 para: Steele says that he is "hesitant" about sharing information with CIA, NSA and a redacted entity, supposedly because of concern over security (while supposedly having no such concern about leaky FBI). Sounds more like flattery. Corresponding Auten note redacted.
63/ something else interesting that emerges from this seemingly pedantic cross-comparison of Auten notes and final 302. The next paragraph of Auten notes has NO corresponding entry in 302 - unlike everything or almost everything so far. Take a look and I'll comment more.
64/ the information left out by Auten and FBI pertains to a report by Steele's new Psub on SBU's report on Manafort. The new PSS says that information provided by Ukrainian SBU to FBI about Manafort being a Russian agent, being run by FSB, has been "doctored" by Kyiv !!
65/ Steele's new agent says that the information was doctored by Kyiv to "justify surveillance" of Manafort. Steele endorsed the new P-sub and anticipated having further information on the Ukrainian fraud in the following week.
66/ this replaces a tweet that I sent out a couple of minutes ago. While there is no corresponding entry in this part of the 302, I double checked the balance of 302 (about half way through) and there is an entry that corresponds to some of this material. I'll comment then.
67/ next, FBI asks about Danchenko's "physical security". Discussion is redacted. Why? Danchenko lived in northern Virginia. Why would he be at risk? Or, at least, at any more risk of random murder than Seth Rich or any other Washingtonian? /sarc/
68/ next, they discussed PSS' contact with "Russian establishments". Auten notes are totally redacted; in 302, Steele mentions something "strange, but nothing alarming". Also discusses something to do with Kalugin.
69/ Mikhail Kalugin, a Russian diplomat located in Washington in 2016, had cameo appearance in Steele dossier (Report 111, Sept 14, 2016). His (apparently routine) transfer home was portrayed in Steele/Danchenko intel porn as fallout from DNC hack.
70/ Danchenko was asked about Kalugin in Jan 2017 interview - Kalugin's name was redacted but is identifiable in section shown below.
71/ FBI asked Steele whether Danchenko had been approached by journalists. Steele said yes, and that this had spooked Danchenko, causing him to go to ground. (To my recollection, it's not established that Danchenko told Steele that he'd been interviewed by FBI.)
72/ previously, Danchenko told FBI that, as of Jan 25, 2017, he had been approached by two journals, but neither seems to have suspected his secret identity as PSS. (Danchenko frequently made public comments on Russia affairs.)
73/ returning to Steele 302 thread: FBI asked Steele whether sub-sources aware that their information used in dossier. To interpret Steele answer, keep in mind that Millian never met or provided info to Danchenko whereas Galkina and Danchenko were long-time friends since Perm and
74/ reference to Gubarev is to story in Report 166 about Alexei Gubarev and Webzilla - who had been Galkina's employer in 2016 and with whom Galkina was in bitter dispute. After FN identified Galkina as Source 3, multiple articles: rt.com/usa/504856-ste… wsj.com/articles/russi…
75/ Danchenko had also been asked about Gubarev-Webzilla story, a topic on which FBI seem to have examined Danchenko and Steele more thoroughly than the actual collusion allegations. Gubarev-Webzilla story is subject of libel cases in both UK and US.
76/ Steele then segued to then recent death of Oleg Erovinkin. This is interesting segment given subsequent intel pornography as Erovinkin was not PSS or sub-source. Steele told FBI that he "does not believe" that Erovinkin was a subsource.
77/ Erovinkin, then 61 years old, had died on Dec 26, 2016 of a heart attack in his car. He was a former FSB agent who was then working for Sechin's Rosneft. totpi.com/former-russian…
78/ shortly after publication of Steele dossier on Jan 10, 2017, the Telegraph telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/2… archive archive.is/kGcSc published intel porno fantasy purporting to link Erovinkin death to Steele dossier.
79/ they cited an intel pornographer in Bulgaria, who stated that Putin had Steele dossier "on his desk" at the time of Erovinkin's death and implied that Erovinkin had been arkancided on Putin's personal instruction.
80/ this fantasy continued to be promulgated by Fusion GPS lawyer in 2018
cbsnews.com/news/fusion-gp… - it was, needless to say, a convenient excuse to avoid answering questions about fabrication of collusion allegations in US and/or UK.
cbsnews.com/news/fusion-gp… - it was, needless to say, a convenient excuse to avoid answering questions about fabrication of collusion allegations in US and/or UK.
81/ story continued to feed intel fantasies by US media. thedailybeast.com/was-this-russi… It was all, of course, untrue.
82/ given importance of this story, one would have expected Mueller to have determined that Erovinkin was not an actual sub-source, but Mueller thugs ignored this important and relevant allegation, while pursuing minute details of Manafort taxes and Skadden Arps report on Ukraine
83/ next FBI discussed info security with Steele, who told them that sensitive documents were kept offline. Steele also told FBI that all documents re dossier had been destroyed "for legal reasons" and inconsistently claimed to have docs on some meetings. FBI didn't pin down
84/ as first day wound down, FBI asked Steele about potential "dangles" - which caused Steele to bring up Cody Shearer, which they discussed the next day. (I'll pick this up later on. I personally think that Cody Shearer unimportant to dossier and wildly overstated by proponents)
85/ in last item in Auten notes, Steele claims dirt from Kazakhstand and Cyprus within "remit of Special Counsel", but looking for money ("how much support can be expected going forward"). No corresponding entry in 302 here. No Auten notes for Steele's 2nd day, only 302.
86/ this ends long thread on first day of Steele Oct 2017 interview. For second day (documented thus far only by the 302) see here
https://twitter.com/ClimateAudit/status/1353426756514979840
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