Thread by @ClimateAudit

unsurprisingly, commentary on Danchenko indictment is very inaccurate. US media is mostly trying to whitewash FBI and intel community by blaming on Danchenko, who is not an innocent. But after January 24, 2017, perpetuation of dossier hoax was due to FBI, not Danchenko deception.

in this thread, I'm going to comment on recent commentary, starting with Eric Wemple archive.md/sjvcJ and Glenn Kessler archive.md/sjvcJ of the WaPo, which announced partial retractions of past reporting.

3/ I'm going to focus on Millian commentary as that is one of two issues in Indictment. "Fact-checker" Kessler began his section on Millian with false claim that Millian was doxed in news reports "because Danchenko suggested [his name] to FBI". This is total BS.

4/ Yes, Millian was named in multiple news reports in early 2017, including an important WaPo article, but NONE of these reports were based on Danchenko's FBI interview.

5/ for reference, here are some of the seminal early articles. David Corn, Mother Jones, Jan 19 motherjones.com/politics/2017/…; Mark Maremont, WSJ Jan 24 archive.is/3qfHT; ABC abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-ru… and importantly WaPo itself Mar 30 archive.is/Nv8Xh

6/ BTW WaPo has not only revised its Mar 30 article, but altered its URL so that past versions are not retrieved with ordinary look-up on archive.is or Wayback. You have to have saved original URL or be able to locate it.

7/ We don't KNOW provenance of the seminal WSJ story on Jan 24, 2017, which, interestingly, was published on the morning of Danchenko's first interview (which was in the afternoon at same time as Flynn's interview.) Maremont's info did NOT originate with Danchenko. Nor the others

8/ the most plausible provenance of Maremont's "information" was Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS. Maremont and Simpson knew one another from Simpson's days at WSJ and even co-authored in past. See HansMahncke

https://twitter.com/HansMahncke/status/1459702622353608708

9/ in mid-late January, Simpson and Steele were very worried about what Danchenko was going to do, as Danchenko seems to have gone dark. (We now know that Schamel and Laufman were then negotiating a sweetheart deal for Danchenko along lines of candy for Hillary Clinton aides).

10/ one can't help wondering whether the public doxing of Millian (who wasn't actually a source for Danchenko) was a shot across the bow and warning to Danchenko. Whose identity, unlike Millian's, remained (undeservedly) a state secret for years.

11/ anyway, Kessler's attempt to blame Danchenko's "suggest[ion]" to FBI as origin of Millian doxing is bogus. At best, a mistake; at worst, gaslighting.

12/ Kessler then observed "indictment charges that Danchenko made up his alleged contacts with Millian". The implication is that Danchenko's misinformation was responsible for or contributed to FBI's continuing investigation of allegations attributed to Millian AFTER Jan 24, 2017

13/ Kessler then observed (correctly) that "with removal of Millian as source for dossier, much of the material must be discarded as highly suspect"
Impacting not just Page FISA (a shiny object that hypnotizes right-wing), but predicate for further FBI investigation and even ICA

14/ what Kessler left out and what all major media conceal is that on January 24, 2017, protected by immunity protection from Democrat candyman Laufman, Danchenko had confessed he had never met Millian and that it was possible, if not probable, that he had never talked to Millian

15/ Danchenko confessed that Millian never replied to his emails and that ONLY contact potentially attributable to Millian was a single telephone call from an anonymous caller, male with Russian accent, and that there was "nothing bad" in that call.

16/ Here are transcriptions of a couple of key sections of Danchenko EC together with likely interpolations.

17/ according to Steele's prior information to FBI, "Millian" had supposedly been Source D in report 80 dated June 24 (pee tape, longstanding collusion); Report 95 from July ~26 (collusion included unholy bargain under which Russian intel would hack and leak emails in exchange

18/ in exchange for promised relied on Ukraine sanctions; plus some other details); Report 97 (July 30 - at least 8 years of collusion) and Report 102 (August 10 - which referred to Aug 9 "speaking in confidence" and that "Millian" had learned plan from Carter Page.

19/ all of this was totally out the window based on Danchenko's confession. Regardless of validity of supposed anonymous call, "Millian" was precluded as source for reports 80, 97 and 102 based on dates and as source for lurid allegations of 95 based on Danchenko evidence.

20/ also, once Danchenko was identified as Steele's Primary Sub-Source and "Millian" as Source D/E, checking emails between Danchenko and Millian was trivial and mandatory due diligence.

21/ this is something that is not just 20-20 hindsight. When one of our readers proposed Danchenko as PSS on July 19, 2020, our very first act was to ask Millian to look for emails from Danchenko in July-Aug 2016.

22/ within an hour or so, Millian had located two emails from Danchenko - the very same emails that were cited in the Indictment. And which had been referred to in the Interview EC. Only when we had this confirmation did we announce our confirmation that Danchenko was the PSS.

23/ the emails cut two ways. The approximate dates given by Danchenko for the emails were somewhat inaccurate - so was Papadopoulos' recollection of when he first met Mifsud. But whereas FBI charged Papadop for his inaccurate dates in 2017, they didn't charge Danchenko in 2017.

25/ based on much later evidence from both Steele and Danchenko, it appears that Danchenko lied to Steele about having met Millian. In January interview (at least as reported), even after learning that Danchenko had never met Millian, FBI neglected to ask D what he told Steele

26/ but the problem for FBI on January 24-26 was that Danchenko's confessions had blown up the sourcing of the most important Steele dossier allegations, including the allegations relied upon on the ICA.

27/ nonetheless, the FBI proceeded with its investigations as though the Danchenko interview had never happened. Thus far, no one in the FBI has admitted reading Auten's memorandum. According to Auten, he dropped it into the case file, where it seems to have gathered dust.

28/ it was an unbelievably successful outcome for the candyman. Danchenko had been a key operative in the Steele dossier fraud, but he had laundered all or nearly all of his exposure under the immunity deal.

29/ also - and this is key - the purpose of the immunity agreement was presumably to get information that could be used. But instead of using any of Danchenko's information e.g. that he hadn't met Millian and source attribution was fraudulent,

30/ the FBI totally ignored Danchenko's confession. Worse, it buried it and concealed it, while doubling down on the Trump campaign investigation.

31/ the problem in this portion of the affair is not that FBI was misled by Danchenko's lie, but that their ability to charge Danchenko appropriately was sandbagged by sweetheart deal between Schamel and Laufman the candyman.

32/ the views of any Canadian over 50 on sweetheart immunity deals with a participant in a crime are inevitably shaped by the notorious "Deal with the Devil", described on its 25 year anniversary here: torontosun.com/news/local-new…

33/ Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo were partners in multiple rapes and murders of young girls in southern Ontario, one of whom was Karla's 14-year old sister Tammy. Karla obtained a sweetheart deal with prosecutors by pretending that she was a battered victim.

34/ subsequent to the deal, tapes of the rapes and murders were discovered. The tapes showed that Karla was an eager participant in the murders and possibly even instigator. Unsurprisingly, there was an upwell of horror in Canada.

35/ The public demanded that prosecutors figure out a way to back out of their deal with Karla and try her for multiple counts of first degree murder. But the prosecutors stuck to their deal on the principle that important for criminals to trust the word of the Crown prosecutors.

36/ I think that Durham faced a similar problem: the candyman had made a deal with the devil. (A much lesser devil than Homolka, but a devil nonetheless.) Durham indictment's looks to me like an attempt to work around the candyman's deal.

37/ Danchenko's claim about the anonymous call didn't matter a damn to the FBI investigation. FBI deep-sixed and concealed important admissions by Danchenko. IMO Durham indictment shows his desire to somehow circumvent the candyman's "deal with the devil".