Thread by @walkafyre

THREAD: ALFA, SIMPSON, KAVALEC, SOLOMON - some nuggets that have flown under the radar... 1/x

Most narratives about the Alfa Server start with Franklin Foer’s story in Slate – October 30, 2016. But the rumors of a secret Trump-Alfa connection were first injected into the public consciousness no later than October 4, 2016. 2/x

I will first point to Krypt3ia’s blog post on 10/8/16. Krypt3ia “caught wind” of a mysterious website when someone “asked [him] to look at an i2p address that they couldn’t figure out.” 3/x krypt3ia.wordpress.com/2016/10/08/gdd…

The site was named “gdd53.” It was originally hosted on the dark web (look up “i2p”), although it was mirrored on a page that was accessible from a normal browser. Krypt3ia even included some screenshots from the site and its claims regarding the Trump/Alfa connection. 4/x

Here’s an archived version of the site (from November 1, 2016) 5/x: web.archive.org/web/2016110114…

This was the first emergence of “Tea Leaves” attempting to put this information into the public sphere. TL also posted a link to the site on Reddit on Oct 4, but that is (mostly) outside the scope of this thread. 6/x

Krypt3ia even wonders “But then why the tip off email to someone who then got in touch with me? Someone I spoke to about this alluded to maybe that was the plan, for me to blog about this from the start..." 7/x

We know that Michael Sussmann of Perkins Coie represented a pseudonymous “Max,” a colleague of Tea Leaves who took his findings to the FBI (and several media outlets) in September. Perkins, as we also know, also engaged FusionGPS on behalf of Hillary/DNC. 8/x

Recently FusionGPS filed a privilege log in ongoing litigation with the owners of Alfa Bank, and we got to see lots of information about emails to/from FGPS folks during 2016. 9/x storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

Interestingly, on 10/5, Simpson, Fritsch, and another FGPS employee trade emails with subject “Fwd: so this is safe to look at.” We can tell that it’s the “gdd” website from the email attachments – it’s a saved version of the site. The filenames are all part of the gdd site. 10/x

Again, this is OCTOBER 5 – 3 days before Krypt3ia posts about it. So who sent the initial email to Simpson? Krypt3ia? Krypt3ia's source? Or was Simpson actually Krypt3ia's source? Remember, we know Simpson and Max have a connection – Perkins Coie. 11/x

If Sussmann/Perkins passed the info to Simpson in order to push the story out, then things start getting real shady real fast. Sussmann knew that the FBI was looking into the server – he had gone to them in September. 12/x

One of Tea Leaves/Max’s “smoking guns” is that the server was updated on September 23 after the NYT went to Alfa and inquired (“no one but Alfa was asked”). Well, apparently the FBI had also been asking around… 13/x

TL/Max knew FBI was involved, and insinuating “only Alfa” was informed is actual disinformation. Anyone else find it odd we have yet another example of “I didn’t think the FBI was doing anything so I had to go to the media” while Steele was also going to the media as well? 14/x

Simpson gets sent this brand spanking new website on the dark web, so he can media blitz this scandal and Steele’s dossier to the media as a “hail Mary” attempt – it’s almost too perfect. Good thing they are protected by attorney-client privilege with Perkins Coie... 15/x

BUT WAIT – THERE’S MORE. 16/x

On October 13, 2016, Kathleen Kavalec, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, forwarded a 5-page attachment to Stephen Laycock at the FBI, who in turn forwarded it to Pete Strzok and the Crossfire Hurricane team. The attachment was withheld in full from release under FOIA. 17/x

This email was sent 2 days after Kavalec's meeting with Chris Steele. However, the attachment was received from Jonathan Winer, another State Department employee, and related to the allegations of a link between Alfa Bank and the Trump campaign. 18/x

Note that Winer "[did] not have access to" an unknown "online piece" requested by Kavalec on Oct. 12, but brought a copy the following day. 19/x

Apparently however, according to an FBI Declaration filed in the FOIA lawsuit by Citizen's United to obtain these documents, the attachment had to be withheld in full (WIF) because it might "disclose sources and methods," even though unclassified. 20/x

When Kavalec later typed up notes of her meeting with Steele (at least 1-2 weeks after her meeting with Steele), she even (apparently) references the attachment that she had sent on the 13th. 21/x

So what was the attachment? We almost got an answer in October 2019, when John Solomon wrote an article about Kavalec's email and the attachment. 22/x web.archive.org/web/2019102406…

He even provides quotes from the memo as well as provides a link! However, for some odd reason, the link is only to 5 blank pages. Solomon has never updated his link nor explained why he hasn't actually released the memo. 23/X scribd.com/document/43173…

The "blank" memo of course has had lots of this corner wondering "what could it be??" By this point, you should probably know the answer… 24/x

After all that, this super secret intelligence, that the FBI fought tooth and nail to keep secret, is just a printout of the GDD I2P site. That’s it. Yet they claim in the Citizen United FOIA litigation that it should be withheld in full because of “sources and methods.” 25/x

Citizen’s United pointed out that the “document” has been in the public domain since at least Oct. 4, 2016 – when it was uploaded to Megafire. 26/x

Note the filename – gdd[.]zip. Now we see exactly what Simpson et al were passing around on October 5 – the Megafire zip file, which was only uploaded the day before. 27/x

Did Winer supposedly come across this file independently of Simpson/FGPS? It seems highly doubtful. It seems more like a highly coordinated effort to foist this “document” into as many aspects of the IC and media as possible. 28/x

Ultimately it’s still not “officially” confirmed that the gdd zip file/i2p site is the document Kavalec sent to the FBI – Judge Moss just recently ruled that the FBI is allowed to withhold the complete document in its entirety from FOIA disclosure. 29/x storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

However, Citizens United did manage to pry loose a little bit of additional information through its FOIA litigation which has mostly flown under the radar. That will need to be the subject of a thread addendum, however - plenty of info in the thread already for the evening! 30/x