Thread by @HansMahncke

1/ "Framing Millian"

In today's episode of Truth over News @themarketswork and I look at how Clinton operatives used the media to frame an innocent man.

theepochtimes.com/how-one-innoce…

2/ On January 24, 2017 @SergeiMillian was falsely outed as the primary source for Steele’s dossier by @MarkMaremont of @WSJ. Maremont identified Millian as being the individual named as both source D & E in Steele’s dossier.

3/ Maremont claimed that “Some of the most explosive parts of a dossier containing unverified allegations that President Donald Trump had secret ties to Russian leaders originated from” Millian. The allegations attributed to Millian are crucial to the Steele dossier.

4/ Steele used Millian as the driving force behind major dossier claims:

-the "well-developed conspiracy of cooperation" between Trump and Putin
-the secret comms channel between Alfa Bank and Trump
-that Russia passed hacked DNC emails to Wikileaks
-the infamous pee tape story

5/ Crucially, Steele’s Primary Sub-source, Igor Danchenko was being interviewed by the FBI on the very same day that Maremont published his hit piece. According to Durham, Danchenko lied repeatedly, including about his contacts – or complete lack thereof – with Millian.

6/ The timing of Maremont’s bombshell revelations about Millian appears to have been designed to bolster the lies that Danchenko was telling the FBI. The tight sequence of events leading up to Danchenko’s FBI interview appear to have been choreographed by Clinton operatives.

7/ Just four days before Maremont published his hit piece on Millian, Glenn Simpson, head of Clinton contractors Fusion GPS, had reached out to the DOJ’s Bruce Ohr regarding the impending unmasking of one of Steele’s sources. Maremont and Simpson happened to be long time buddies.

8/ Ohr later testified that Simpson knew that “some kind of article that was likely to come out in the next, you know, few days or something.” During Ohr’s testimony, then Congressman Mark Meadows pointedly stated:

9/ “How would Glenn Simpson know that and the intel community and the Department of Justice and FBI not know that? What made Glenn Simpson so uniquely qualified to call you on Inauguration Day about a concern about a source being outed?”

10/ Ohr’s wife Nellie also happened to work for Simpson. Ohr testified that Nellie was tasked by Simpson with looking into Sergei Millian. He further testified that Simpson first told him of Millian in August 2016.

11/ While Simpson and Steele were happily sharing Sergei Millian’s name far and wide as the major dossier source, including with the FBI, the State Department and the media, they were extremely guarded when it came to the actual source’s name, Igor Danchenko.

12/ The FBI finally identified Danchenko as Steele’s source in January 2017 – three months after they had started illegally spying on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page on the basis of Danchenko’s claims.

13/ It was at that point that David Laufman, a rabid anti-Trumper at the DOJ who also happened to have been involved in the Carter Page FISA, stepped in and took command of efforts to interview Danchenko, including handing Danchenko a sweetheart immunity deal.

14/ But instead of telling the truth, Danchenko doubled down on his Steele dossier lies, including that he had received crucial information from Millian – a lie that he has now been indicted for.

15/ There was an important reason for Danchenko to perpetuate his lie about Millian as his source of information for Steele’s dossier. Steele’s heavy reliance on Millian hinged on having a plausible story as to how Steele obtained the information from Millian.

16/ Steele needed his own operative – Danchenko – to be in the same room as Millian. That way Steele would have a built-in he-said she-said excuse. Danchenko twice emailed Millian in belatedly vain attempts to establish contact. Once in July and again in August 2016.

17/ Millian wisely ignored Danchenko's emails. But Danchenko, apparently under pressure from Steele to provide the answers Steele was looking for, told Steele that his outreach to Millian had been successful and that they had met on three separate occasions.

18/ It was this lie that is fatal to Steele's dossier. As Danchenko finally admitted to the FBI in Nov 2017, Steele erroneously believed that there had been in-person meetings. Danchenko also admitted that it was an erroneous belief which Danchenko chose not to correct.

19/ Had he known that Danchenko never even met Millian, Steele would not have used Millian as a major source. Ironically it was not the lies within Steele’s dossier that brought down Steele’s house of cards - it was the lie Danchenko told Steele.

20/ It remains unknown to what extent members of the media, like the Wall Street Journal’s Maremont, were aware of the lies they were sharing with hundreds of millions of people. What is beyond question is that there was little in the way of journalistic story vetting.

21/ The extraordinarily fortuitous timing of Maremont’s publication – on the same day of Danchenko's FBI interview, is a big problem for Maremont and @WSJ. Unlike @washingtonpost, neither Maremont nor @WSJ have retracted their hit piece, let alone apologized.

22/ Maremont’s failure to apologize and his continued protection of the source who provided false information about Millian could be seen as an indication that Maremont – like so many other corporate journalists – was an active and enthusiastic participant in the Russia hoax.