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Stephen McIntyre

Sep 16, 2021 • 46 tweets • 16 min read • Read on X

Sussmann of Perkins Coie indicted for lying to FBI.
context-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/def… Indictment contains fascinating details on (long-denied) role of Clinton campaign and Democrats in perpetrating this fraud.

2/ Sussmann's work in pushing and disseminating the fraudulent "Alfa" logs was billed to Clinton campaign, contradicting prior claims that he represented some anonymous public-spirited client.

3/ Durham's characterization of July 29, 2016 meeting leaves out one of most important facts: in addition to Fusion personnel (US Investigative Firm) attending this meeting, Christopher Steele of Orbis was in attendance. Why omit this?

4/ Sussmann, Elias and Fusion were coordinating in August 2016, with time charged to Clinton campaign

@FOOL_NELSON

5/ Tech-Executive 1 (Max, who, prior to indictment, was plausibly identified by @FOOL_NELSON as Rodney Joffe of Neustar) also communicated directly with Fusion GPS. Questoin: are these communications disclosed in Communications Log provided to Alfa?

I'm a bit slow with this thread as I'm digesting it in real time. Each page has fresh surprises and hard to do justice to it. I encourage everyone to read it.

6/ I'm going to walk through chronology of events, adding commentary. Durham observes that Tea Leaves/Originator 1 had "assembled purported DNS data" by "in or around late July 2016" spanning time period from May 4, 2016 to July 29, 2016.

7/ the July 29 date matches, by coincidence or not, the date of a meeting between Sussmann, Elias, Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele at Perkins Coie office. This was in the immediate wake of Wikileaks publishing DNC emails. Also date that Crossfire Hurricane opened.

8/ the latest timestamp in Tea Leaves' purported DNS log was July 19, 2016 11:33 AM (EDT). So it was finalized only minutes before the Perkins Coie meeting.

9/ by coincidence (or not), the earliest timestamp in the purported DNS logs was on May 4, 2016 6:48 AM (EDT), the very day that Crowdstrike's engagement began and, within minutes, purported to identify Russian state hackers.

9/ Durham says that Originator-1 (Tea Leaves) was "a business associate of Tech Executive 1 [Joffe]". WeaponizedAutism convincingly identified Tea Leaves some time ago as April Lorenzen. Detail in Indictment consistent with this identification.

10/ at almost exactly the same time, Steele and Danchenko published Report 95 (undated but within a day or two of July 27, 2016), which broke the most detailed and damning fabrications of Trump-Russia collusion, claiming that Wikileaks hack and drop a product of this collusion

11/ the fraudulent Steele Report 95 would almost certainly have been on the agenda of Fusion, Steele, Elias and Sussmann at their July 29 summit meeting - in addition to the incipient fraud related to "Alfa Bank" communications

12/ the Indictment itemizes contacts between Sussmann, [Joffe] and Elias in August, all billed to Clinton campaign.

13/ the next section of Indictment describes efforts by Tech Executive 1 to "use his access at multiple organizations" to dig up dirt on Trump and Russia with the "goal of creating a 'narrative'" regarding Trump-Russia. If nothing else, this sounds like FARA in-kind contribution.

14/ Tech Executive 1 used his authority at two companies to direct employees to search "public and non-public" data for "derogatory" information on Trump. Some of this data appears to have been held by companies in supposed confidence, but such duties ignored.

15/ employees appear to have told FBI that they were "uncomfortable" with such an assignment, but Tech Executive 1 was a "powerful figure"

15/ on orders from Tech Executive 1, employees carried out a monumental search of "non-public Internet data" held in confidence for contacts of Trump associates. (Keep in mind that the Tea Leaves "data" was already in hand and has nothing to do with this August research.)

16/ employees of Internet Company 3 appear to have drafted a "written paper" for Tech Executive 1 containing "some of the same technical observations". I presume that these were comments on the Tea Leaves data, as hard to understand otherwise.

16/ concurrently, Tech Exec 1 commissioned Tea Leaves [Lorenzen] and two researchers at University-1 (plausibly identified as Georgia Tech) to research Trump ties to Russia to "please certain 'VIPS'". Another in kind contribution not declared to FEC.

17/ Durham observed that University-1 and Agency-1 were then finalizing a major contract. Walkafyre has convincingly identified this as the DoD-Georgia Tech contract announced on Nov 29, 2016. PI was Manos Antonakkis. Michael Farrell was Chief Scientist news.gatech.edu/news/2016/11/2…

18/ Durham says that TeaLeaves/Originator 1 was "founder of a company that [Georgia Tech] researchers were considering as a potential data provider". Slight support for identification of Lorenzen as putative Tea Leaves, as she was founder of Dissect Cyber.

19/ TechExec1 and InternetCompany1 provided [Georgia Tech] with confidential data, including DNS data of an Executive Branch office which [Neustar] held confidentially as a "sub-contractor in a sensitive relationship between USG and another company". By what authority I wonder?

20/ the ostensible purpose of Company 1 supplying confidential data to [Georgia Tech] was for research "to protect US from cyberattacks". However, TeaLeaves and the GT researchers "exploited" data to research alleged Trump-Russia ties

21/ but while the researchers were carrying out oppo research on all sorts of confidential data that they had for other purpose, this research not only doesn't appear to have turned up any derogatory information, but to have raised questions about Tea Leaves' original file

21/ Researcher 1 queried the DNS datafiles on domain mail1.trump-email.com (the domain in later controversy) and was unable to locate any communications linked to Russia, reporting that list "does not make much sense with the storyline you have".

21/ Originator 1 sent an email to [Joffe] and the other researchers on Aug 20, 2016, pointing out that it would be easy to fill out sales forms on two websites with a fake email address, and thereby cause them "to appear to communicate in DNS".

22/ [Joffe] then sent an email to [Lorenzen] and the researchers saying that "VIPs would be happy" with "evidence of *anything* that shows an attempt [by Trump] to behave badly". Very clear that [Joffe] complying with requests from Perkins Coie and Democrats.

23/ on August 21, 2016, [Joffe] concurred with researchers that DNS traffic "was not a secret communications channel" with Alfa Bank, noting that host was "legitimate cusomter relationship company" and that they could "ignore it", but urged researchers to press on in search.

24/ on August 22, Researcher 1 totally backed off allegations, saying that they could not credibly defend against criticism that traffic was "spoofed", that they would need to use "every trick" to make "even weak association" and claims could not "fly public scrutiny"

25/ so, at this point in Indictment, the tech specialists, including Tech Executive 1 (Max) have concluded that DNS logs did not provide defensible evidence of backchannel communications via Alfa Bank. Yet Sussmann and Perkins Coie proceeded anyway. On to balance of Indictment

26/ on September 5, Sussmann "began billing work for drafting" white paper summarizing the Alfa allegations, allegedly working on this with [Joffe], [Lorenzen] and the [Georgia Tech] researchers. One presumes that a lawyer acting as a lawyer would be obliged to include negatives

27/ on Sept 6, Sussmann (billing Clinton campaign) met with Fusion representatives, media, "consultant" (Tech Exec 1?) and Elias. Probably Eric Lichtblau of NYT was being pitched.

28/ on Sept 7, Sussmann (billing Clinton campaign) continued work on White Paper (which thus appears to be primarily work of Sussmann and Perkins Coie, as opposed to Max, Tea Leaves, Fusion or the Georgia Tech researchers)

29/ next paragraph interesting. Om Sept 14, Sussmann "continued work" on White Paper and met with [Joffe]. This time he billed time to both Clinton campaign and Internet Company 1 [Neustar?]. Did InternetCo1 file this contribution with FEC? How much was it?

30/ also on Sept 14, [Joffe] sought comments from [Lorenzen] and the [Georgia Tech] researchers on whether Sussmann's White Paper would be "plausible" to "security experts" (not as "dns experts"), at least enough to throw mud.

30/ the cynicism of the conspirators is breathtaking. Researcher 1 commended White Paper for avoiding the caveats and thought that it would fool "non-DNS" security professionals. "Nice!"

31/ On Sept 15, Tea Leaves also agreed that Sussmann's White Paper managed to be "plausible" within the "narrow scope". (By concealing and evading the caveats and question-marks which they were all aware of.)

32/ on Sept 16, Researcher-2 was also on board and suggested that Sussmann's White Paper was ready to "be shared with government officials". This is three days prior to Sussmann's meeting with FBI.

32/ this next paragraph suggest's that what I've been calling Sussmann's White Paper was more properly a joint product of Sussmann and TechExec1 [Joffe]. [Lorenzen] said that [TechExec1] had "carefully crafted message that could work to accomplish goals". Seems like a conspiracy

32/ concurrently, Sussmann was personally acting as agent for Clinton campaign with media. On Sept 1, he met with Franklin Foer (Reporter 1) who had previously authored article on Trump as Putin's bitch and would later break fraudulent Alfa communications story.

33/ on Sept 12, Sussmann and Elias talked to one another about Sussmann's efforts to place story with [New York Times]. Both Elias and Sussmann billed Clinton campaign for call.

34/ on Sept 15, Elias corresponded with 3 Clinton campaign officials about "Alfa" allegations that were subject of Sussmann-[Joffe] White Paper: campaign manager Robbie Mook, communications director Jen Palmieri and foreign policy advisor Jake Sullivan (now Biden Nat Sec Advisor)

35/ for readers new to this story, several of the key names in this narrative (Rodney Joffe, April Lorenzen, Georgia Tech researcher David Dagon) are listed in Alfa Bank subpoenas (located by Walkafyre at appsgp.mypalmbeachclerk.com/eCaseView/land… Search 2020ca006304). My collation below.

typo here. This should be July 29, 2016. Arggh.

36/ by coincidence, Rodney Joffe visited White House on Mar 23, 2016, 4 days after Podesta hack. Accompanied by Ilona Johnson of Neustar linkedin.com/in/ilana-johns… and Martin Lindner, soon to join SecureWorks, which endorsed Crowdstrike's ID of Fancy Bear linkedin.com/in/martin-lind…

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Stephen McIntyre

@ClimateAudit

Jun 8

in 2019 and 2020, there was a huge amount of interest in the Strzok-Page texts, but almost no attention was paid to the fact that the texts had been heavily "curated" before reaching the public and that some key topics were missing.

One of the key topics that was missing from the Strzok-Page texts (as curated) was any mention of the interview of Steele's Primary Sub-Source in late January 2017. Given that the FBI had insisted on inclusion of Steele dossier allegations in the Intelligence Community Assessment dated January 6, 2017, this was a central FBI issue at the time and the lack of any reference in the Strzok-Page texts as originally presented is noteworthy.

Readers may recall that the very first tranche of Strzok-Page texts, released in Feb 2018, contained a long gap from mid-December 2017 to mid-May 2018 - from the ICA to appointment of Mueller. This is the very period in which the Crossfire investigation metastasized into the lawfare that undermined the incoming administration. The fact that this period was separately missing from both Strzok and Lisa Page has never been adequately explained. As an aside, it seems odd that the FBI can retrieve emails and texts from targets, but not from their own employees.

Subsequently, a tranche of texts from the missing period was released, but these were also heavily curated and contained no texts that relate to the Primary Subsource.

However, from an an exhibit in the Flynn case , we //KNOW// that, in the late evening of January 13, 2017, Strzok and Page texted about the Primary Subsource, less than two weeks prior to the interview (which began on January 24, 2017). The message wasn't interpretable in real time, but we (Hans Mahncke) were subsequently able to connect it to the Danchenko interview via the reference to the "Womble" law firm, with which Danchenko's lawyer, Mark Schamel, was then associated. We also learned that Schamel was friends with and namedropped Lisa Monaco.

But other than this single excerpt from the Flynn exhibits, I haven't located anything in any of the other Strzok texts than can be plausibly connected to the critical interviews of the Primary Subsource.

I think that there are some Strzok emails from Jan 19 and Jan 22, 2017 that may refer to the pending Primary Subsource interview, that I'll discuss next.

One useful thing that the Weaponization Committee could do would be to publish a complete and unexpurgated set of Strzok-Page texts. Given the interest created by the highly expurgated version, one wonders what an expurgated and unbowdlerized version might yield.courtlistener.com/docket/6234142…

In the volume of Strzok emails released on October 31, 2019, there was an almost entirely redacted thread dated January 19 and January 22, 2017, a couple of days before the Primary Subsource interview on January 24, 2017, which look to me like they have a good chance of relating to the PSS interview.

The thread began with an email from FBI Office of General Council (OGC) - Sally Anne Moyer or Kevin Clinesmith - to Strzok and a CD subordinate, with a very short subject line.

We know that the PSS interview was lawyered up and carried out under a sweetheart queen-for-a-day deal that was usually only available to highly placed Democrats (Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills etc.) So involvement of OGC in negotiation of the PSS interview is expected.

at 6:47 pm on Thursday, Jan 19, 2017, Strzok's CD subordinate wrote back that "here's what we have to decide ASAP". The issue is totally redacted, naturally. (This is one day before inauguration.)

Read 12 tweets

Stephen McIntyre

@ClimateAudit

May 12

https://twitter.com/ClimateAudit/status/1485801171336019968

in April 2022, Mark Steyn, on his GB News show
,
commented on recently released UK COVID data, claiming "the third booster shots so zealously promoted by the British state, and its groupthink media has failed, and in fact exposed you to significantly greater risk of infection, hospitalization and death."
Steyn showed images of five tables from official statistical publications to support his claims.
In April 2023, Ofcom, which, in addition to its ordinary regulatory role, had taken a special interest in vaccine advocacy, ruled that Steyn's "presentation of UK Health Security Agency data
and their use to draw conclusions materially misled the audience. In breach of Rule 2.2 of the Broadcasting Code" - a very damaging finding that Steyn has appealed.

I haven't followed this case. However, as it happens, I had taken an interest in UK COVID data about 3 months earlier, as it was one of the few jurisdictions that published case and hospitalization rates by vaccination status.

Also, to refresh readers on the contemporary context, early 2022 was the period in which COVID lockdowns and overall alarm began to decline.

At the time, I observed that the UK data showed that the case rate for triple vax was //higher// than among unvax. Three months later, Steyn (as discussed below) made a similar claim, for which he was censured.

Although the UK authorities conspicuously refrained from including this result in their summary or conclusions, they were obviously aware of the conundrum, since their publication included a curious disclaimer by UK authorities that actual case data "should not be used" to estimate vaccine effectiveness. I pointed this odd disclaimer out in this earlier thread, also noting that health authorities in Ontario and elsewhere had previously used such data to promote vaccine uptake and that the reasoning behind this disclaimer needed to be closely examined and parsed.

All of these issues turned up later in the Ofcom decision re Steyn.

Ofcom ruled that Steyn's presentation was "materially misleading" because
(1) he failed to take account of "fundamental biases" in age structure of vax and unvax groups i.e. unvax group was skewed younger, vax group skewed older; and
(2) he failed to include the disclaimer that "This raw data should not be used to estimate vaccine effectiveness as the data does not take into account inherent biases present such as differences in risk, behaviour and testing in the vaccinated and unvaccinated populations”.steynonline.com/mark-steyn-sho…
ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/…

https://twitter.com/ClimateAudit/status/1485801171336019968

in this thread, I'll re-examine Steyn's analysis. I've transcribed all the numbers in the tables and done further calculations to check his claims.

First, case rates. Steyn first showed an important table showing the population by 5-year age group and vax status, observing that the total population of triply vax (boosted) was approximately equal to the population of unboosted, observing that this facilitated comparison. Steyn: "Let's take a look at this, as you can see from a pool of 63 million down at the bottom there, 63 million, there are 32 million who are triple vaccinated. That leaves just under 31 million, who are either double single or unvaccinated. So we have two groups of similar size, 31, 32 million. So it's relatively easy to weigh the merits of the third shot upon Group A versus group B."

He then showed a table of cases by age group and vax status, pointing out that the total number of boosted cases was approximately double the number of unboosted cases: "So the triple vaccinated in March were responsible for just over a million COVID cases and everybody else 475,000 COVID cases. So the triple vaccinated are contracting COVID at approximately twice the rate of the double, single and unvaccinated. Got that? If you get the booster shot, you've got twice as high a chance of getting the COVID. In the United Kingdom, there's twice as many people with the third booster shot who got the COVID, as the people who never had the booster shot."

Ofcom purported to rebut Steyn's analysis as shown in excerpt below. They observed that proportion of unvax in younger age groups was much higher than in older age groups and that the "simple comparison between the two groups made by Mark Steyn failed to take into account these inherent biases".

However, Ofcom failed to show that there would be a different outcome in the more complex analysis in which age groups were allowed for.

As it turns out, in regard to case rates, Steyn's conclusions, if anything, under-stated the phenomenon, as shown next.

Read 11 tweets

Stephen McIntyre

@ClimateAudit

Apr 19

https://twitter.com/ClimateAudit/status/1705979759484653694

here is a thread from 2023 in which Eric Ciaramella's "yikes" is placed in a more detailed context.

In this thread, I suggested that the linkage was connected to Jan 21, 2016 meeting of Ukrainian prosecutors with State Dept officials, noting that Jamie Gusack (reporting to Bridget Brink) had distributing the first demand for Shokin's head (Nov 22 TPs)

https://twitter.com/ClimateAudit/status/1705979759484653694

as pointed out in that thread, Gusack (State Dept) had been coordinating with Ciaramella (NSC) prior to arrival of Ukr prosecutors in Jan 2016, referring to Shokin replacement.

State Dept cited "diamond prosecutors case" as big deal. But what happened to it next? A long story.

Bridget Brink, Jamie Gusack's boss, reported to Victoria Nuland. Brink was appointed Ambassador to Ukraine in April 2022. Unanimous approval by Senate in early days of war at the exact time that US and UK were sabotaging the peace deal negotiated in Istanbul

Read 4 tweets

Stephen McIntyre

@ClimateAudit

Mar 17

https://twitter.com/ClimateAudit/status/1769062912155328978

as observed yesterday, , after 2014 US coup, the tsunami of billion dollar US/IMF loans was associated with unprecedented embezzlement by Ukr oligarchs thru corrupt Ukr banking system. Rescues of failed banks (mostly unnoticed in west) were markers

https://twitter.com/ClimateAudit/status/1769062912155328978

in today's thread, I'll provide a short bibliography of articles (mostly Ukrainian language via google translate) on the Ukr banking corruption crisis that began and exploded after the 2014 US coup, while Biden, Blinken, Nuland et al were running Ukraine

once one searches specifically for the topic, there are interesting references, but the topic has received essentially next to zero coverage in the west. I'll take myself as an example. Despite following Ukr affairs quite closely, my prior knowledge was three vignettes.

Read 15 tweets

Stephen McIntyre

@ClimateAudit

Mar 16

May 25, 2021: US DOJ announced indictment & arrest of Austrian banker Peter Weinzierl

Mar 13, 2024: we learn that Alexander Smirnov was an FBI informant against Weinzierl and had lured Weinzierl to UK on behalf of FBI for arrest justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/t…
archive.is/zO1rt

the DOJ charges against Austrian banker Weinzierl, filed during first six months of Biden admin, pertained to allegations that payments made via Meinl Bank in Austria by Brazilian construction company Odebrecht were connected to evasion of taxes in Brazil.

if the concern of US DOJ and FBI with administration of Brazilian tax collection seems somewhat quirky, there may be an ulterior motive: Meinl Bank had a central role in the looting of Ukrainian banks during the 2014-2016 Biden administration of Ukraine.

Read 11 tweets

Stephen McIntyre

@ClimateAudit

Mar 3

Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, named by NYT as architect of 2014 post-Maidan takeover of Ukrainian intelligence by CIA, is former head of Ukrainian SBU. His comments on Biden corruption deserve attention, but have been ignored.archive.is/zXXQV

on October 10, 2019, early in the Trump impeachment saga, Nalyvaichenko published an op ed in Wall St Journal saying "alliance with US depends on answering questions about Bidens and election interference" [by Ukraine] archive.is/wsrjP

in that editorial, Naluvaichenko, the former SBU hear, stated that Ukraine had responsibility to investigate allegations that Ukraine interfered in 2016 election (a separate issue from Russian interference) and whether Burisma hired Hunter Biden for "cynical purposes".

Read 6 tweets

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