THE DURHAM REPORT, MAY 2023
Executive Summary
The public record contains a substantial body of information relating to former President Trump’s and the Trump Organization’s relationships with Russian businesses, Russian business people, and Russian officials, as well as separate evidence of Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. These and related subjects are well-documented in the careful examinations undertaken by (i) the Department’s Office of the Inspector General of issues related to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation and its use of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”) authorities, (ii) former FBI Director Robert Mueller as detailed in his report entitled “Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election.” issued in March 2019, and (iii) the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence entitled, “Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election. ” The scope of these earlier inquiries, the amount of important information gathered, and the contributions they have made to our understanding of Russian election interference efforts are a tribute to the diligent work and dedication of those charged with the responsibility of conducting them. Our review and investigation, in turn has focused on separate but related questions, including the following:
• Was there adequate predication for the FBI to open the Crossfire Hurricane investigation from its inception on July 31, 2016 as a full counterintelligence and Foreign AgentsRegistration Act (“FARA”) investigation given the requirements of The Attorney
General's Guidelines for FBI Domestic Operations and FBI policies relating to the use of the least intrusive investigative tools necessary?
Was the opening of Crossfire Hurricane as a full investigation on July 31, 2016 consistent with how the FBI handled other intelligence it had received prior to July 31, 2016 concerning attempts by foreign interests to influence the Clinton and other campaigns?
Similarly, did the FBI properly consider other highly significant intelligence it received at virtually the same time as that used to predicate Crossfire Hurricane, but which related not to the Trump campaign, but rather to a purported Clinton campaign plan “to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services,” which might have shed light on some of the Russia information the FBI was receiving from third parties, including the Steele Dossier, the Alfa Bank allegations and confidential human source (“CHS”) reporting? If not, were any provable federal crimes committed in failing to do so?
Was there evidence that the actions of any FBI personnel or third parties relating to the Crossfire Hurricane investigation violated any federal criminal statutes, including the prohibition against making false statements to federal officials? If so, was that evidence sufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt?
Was there evidence that the actions of the FBI or Department personnel in providing false or incomplete information to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (“FISC”) violated any federal criminal statutes? If so, was there evidence sufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt?
Our findings and conclusions regarding these and related questions are sobering.
State of Intelligence Community Information Regarding Trump and Russia Prior to the Opening
of Crossfire Hurricane
As set forth in greater detail in Section IV.A.3.b, before the initial receipt by FBI Headquarters of information from Australia on July 28, 2016 concerning comments reportedly made in a tavern on May 6,2016 by George Papadopoulos, an unpaid foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, the government possessed no verified intelligence reflecting that Trump or the Trump campaign was involved in a conspiracy or collaborative relationship with officials of the Russian government. Indeed, based on the evidence gathered in the multiple exhaustive and costly federal investigations of these matters, including the instant investigation, neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. The Opening of Crossfire Hurricane
As set forth in greater detail in Section IV, the record in this matter reflects that upon receipt of unevaluated intelligence information from Australia, the FBI swiftly opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. In particular, at the direction of Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Peter Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane immediately. Strzok, at a minimum, had pronounced hostile feelings toward Trump. The matter was opened as a full investigation without ever having spoken to the persons who provided the information. Further, the FBI did so without (i) any significant review of its own intelligence databases, (ii) collection and examination of any relevant intelligence from other U.S. intelligence entities, (Hi) interviews of witnesses essential to understand the raw information it had received or (iv) using any of the standard analytical tools typically employed by the FBI in evaluating raw intelligence. Had it done so, again as set out in Sections IV.A.Z.b and c, the FBI would have learned that their own experienced Russia analysts had no information about Trump being involved with Russian leadership officials, nor were others in sensitive positions at the CIA, the NSA, and the Department of State aware of such evidence concerning the subject. In addition, FBI records prepared by Strzok in February and March 2017 show that at the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI had no information in its holdings indicating that at any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump campaign had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials.
The speed and manner in which the FBI opened and investigated Crossfire Hurricane during the presidential election season based on raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence also reflected a noticeable departure from how it approached prior matters involving possible attempted foreign election interference plans aimed at the Clinton campaign. As described in Section IV.B, in the eighteen months leading up to the 2016 election, the FBI was required to deal with a number of proposed investigations that had the potential of affecting the election. In each of those instances, the FBI moved with considerable caution. In one such matter discussed in Section IV.B. I, FBI Headquarters and Department officials required defensive briefings to be provided to Clinton and other officials or candidates who appeared to be the targets of foreign interference. In another, the FBI elected to end an investigation after one of its longtime and valuable CHSs went beyond what was authorized and made an improperand possibly illegal financial contribution to the Clinton campaign on behalf of a foreign entity as a precursor to a much larger donation being contemplated. And in a third, the Clinton Foundation matter, both senior FBI and Department officials placed restrictions on how those matters were to be handled such that essentially no investigative activities occurred for months leading up to the election. These examples are also markedly different from the FBI’s actions with respect to other highly significant intelligence it received from a trusted foreign source pointing to a Clinton campaign plan to vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from her own concerns relating to her use of a private email server. Unlike the FBI’s opening of a full investigation of unknown members of the Trump campaign based on raw, uncorroborated information, in this separate matter involving a purported Clinton campaign plan, the FBI never opened any type of inquiry, issued any taskings, employed any analytical personnel, or produced any analytical products in connection with the information. This lack of action was despite the fact that the significance of the Clinton plan intelligence was such as to have prompted the Director of the CIA to brief the President, Vice President, Attorney General, Director of the FBI, and other senior government officials about its content within days of its receipt. It was also of enough importance for the CIA to send a formal written referral memorandum to Director Comey and the Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, Peter Strzok, for their consideration and action. The investigative referral provided examples of information the Crossfire Hurricane fusion cell had “gleaned to date.”
The Crossfire Hurricane Investigation
Within days after opening Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI opened full investigations on four members of the Trump campaign team: George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn. No defensive briefing was provided to Trump or anyone in the campaign concerning the information received from Australia that suggested there might be some type of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, either prior to or after these investigations were opened. Instead, the FBI began working on requests for the use of FISA authorities against Page and Papadopoulos. The effort as related to Papadopoulos provedunsuccessful. Similarly, the initial effort directed at Page was unsuccessful until the Crossfire Hurricane investigators first obtained what were designated as “Company Intelligence Reports” generated by Christopher Steele. As set forth in Sections IV.D.l.b.ii and iii and in brief below, the Steele Reports were first provided to the FBI in early July 2016 but, for unexplained reasons, only made their way to the Crossfire Hurricane investigators in mid-September. The reports were ostensibly assembled based on information provided to Steele and his company by a “primary sub source,” who the FBI eventually determined in December 2016 was Igor Danchenko.
Our investigation determined that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators did not and could not corroborate any of the substantive allegations contained in the Steele reporting. Nor was Steele able to produce corroboration for any of the reported allegations, even after being offered $1 million or more by the FBI for such corroboration. Further, when interviewed by the FBI in January 2017, Danchenko also was unable to corroborate any of the substantive allegations in the Reports. Rather, Danchenko characterized the information he provided to Steele as “rumor and speculation” and the product of casual conversation.
Section IV.D. 1 .h describes other efforts undertaken by the Crossfire Hurricane investigators working on the Page FISA application. Those efforts included having CHSs record conversations with Page, Papadopoulos and a senior Trump foreign policy advisor. The FBI’s own records and the recordings establish that Page made multiple exculpatory statements to the individual identified as CHS-1, but the Crossfire Hurricane investigators failed to make that information known to the Department attorneys or to the FISC. Page also made explicit statements refuting allegations contained in the Steele reporting about his lack of any relationship with Paul Manafort, but the FBI failed to follow logical investigative leads related to those statements and to report to Department lawyers what they found. Similarly, multiple recordings of Papadopoulos were made by CHS-1 and a second CHS, in which Papadopoulos also made multiple exculpatory statements that were not brought to the attention of the Department lawyers or the FISC.
Furthermore, our investigation resulted in the prosecution and conviction of an FBI OGC attorney for intentionally falsifying a document that was material to the FISC’s consideration of one of the Page FISA applications.
The Steele Dossier
In the spring of 2016, Perkins Coie, a U.S.-based international law firm, acting as counsel to the Clinton campaign, retained Fusion GPS, a U.S.-based investigative firm, to conductopposition research on Trump and his associates. In mid-May 2016, Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS met with Steele in the United Kingdom and subsequently retained Steele and his firm, Orbis Business Intelligence (“Orbis”), to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia. Steele described himself as a former intelligence official for the British government, and was also at the time an FBI CHS. Beginning in July 2016 and continuing through December 2016, the FBI received a series of reports from Steele and Orbis that contained derogatory information about Trump concerning Trump’s purported ties to Russia. As discussed in Section IV.D.l.b.ii, Steele provided the first of his reports to his FBI handler on July 5th. These reports were colloquially referred to as the “Steele Dossier” or “Steele Reports.”
As noted, it was not until mid-September that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators received several of the Steele Reports.33 Within days of their receipt, the unvetted and unverified Steele Reports were used to support probable cause in the FBI’s FISA applications targeting Page, a U.S. citizen who, for a period of time, had been an advisor to Trump. As discussed later in the report, this was done at a time when the FBI knew that the same information Steele had provided to the FBI had also been fed to the media and others in Washington, D.C.
In particular, one allegation contained in an undated Steele Report, identified as 2016/095, described a “well-developed conspiracy of co-operation” between Trump, his campaign, and senior Russian officials. This allegation would ultimately underpin the four FISA applications targeting Page. Specifically, the allegation stated:
Speaking in confidence to a compatriot in late July 2016, Source E, an ethnic Russian close associate of Republican US presidential candidate Donald TRUMP, admitted that there was a well-developed conspiracy of co-operation between them and the Russian leadership. This was managed on the TRUMP side by the Republican candidate’s campaign manager, Paul MANAFORT, who was using foreign policy advisor, Carter PAGE, and others as intermediaries. The two sides had a mutual interest in defeating Democratic presidential candidate Hillary CLINTON, whom President PUTIN apparently both hated and feared.Igor Danchenko - Steele’s Primary Sub-Source
As noted, the FBI attempted, over time, to investigate and analyze the Steele Reports but ultimately was not able to confirm or corroborate any of the substantive allegations contained in those reports. In the context of these efforts, and as discussed in Sections IV.D.l.b.ix and x, the FBI learned that Steele relied primarily on a U.S.-based Russian national, Igor Danchenko, to collect information that ultimately formed the core allegations found in the reports. Specifically, our investigation discovered that Danchenko himself had told another person that he (Danchenko) was responsible for 80% of the “intel” and 50% of the analysis contained in the Steele Dossier.
In December 2016, the FBI identified Danchenko as Steele’s primary sub-source. Danchenko agreed to meet with the FBI and, under the protection of an immunity letter, he and his attorney met with the Crossfire Hurricane investigators on January 24, 25, and 26, 2017. Thereafter, from January 2017 through October 2020, and as part of its efforts to determine the truth or falsity of specific information in the Steele Reports, the FBI conducted multiple interviews of Danchenko regarding, among other things, the information he provided to Steele. As discussed in Section IV.D.l.b.ix, during these interviews, Danchenko was unable to provide any corroborating evidence to support the Steele allegations, and further, described his interactions with his sub-sources as “rumor and speculation” and conversations of a casual nature. Significant parts of what Danchenko told the FBI were inconsistent with what Steele told the FBI during his prior interviews in October 2016 and September 2017. At no time, however, was the FISC informed of these inconsistencies. Moreover, notwithstanding the repeated assertions in the Page FISA applications that Steele’s primary sub-source was based in Russia, Danchenko for many years had lived in the Washington, D.C. area. After learning that Danchenko continued to live in the Washington area and had not left except for domestic and foreign travel, the FBI never corrected this assertion in the three subsequent Page FISA renewal applications. Rather, beginning in March 2017, the FBI engaged Danchenko as a CHS and began making regular financial payments to him for information - none of which corroborated Steele’s reporting.The Unresolved Prior FBI Counterintelligence Investigation of Danchenko
Importantly, and as discussed in Section IV.D.l.c, the FBI knew in January 2017 that Danchenko had been the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation from 2009 to 2011. In late 2008, while Danchenko was employed by the Brookings Institution, he engaged two fellow employees about whether one of the employees might be willing or able in the future to provide classified information in exchange for money. According to one employee, Danchenko believed that he (the employee) might be following a mentor into the incoming Obama administration and have access to classified information. During this exchange, Danchenko informed the employee that he had access to people who were willing to pay for classified information. The concerned employee passed this information to a U.S. government contact, and the information was subsequently passed to the FBI. Based on this information, in 2009 the FBI opened a preliminary investigation into Danchenko. The FBI converted its investigation into a full investigation after learning that Danchenko (i) had been identified as an associate of two FBI counterintelligence subjects and (ii) had previous contact with the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence officers. Also, as discussed in Section IV.D.l.c, at that earlier time, Agents had interviewed several former colleagues of Danchenko who raised concerns about Danchenko’s potential involvement with Russian intelligence. For example, one such colleague, who had interned at a U.S. intelligence agency, informed the Office that Danchenko frequently inquired about that person’s knowledge of a specific Russian military matter.
Meanwhile in July 2010, the FBI initiated a request to use FISA authorities against Danchenko, which was subsequently routed to Department attorneys in August 2010. However, the investigation into Danchenko was closed in March 2011 after the FBI incorrectly concluded that Danchenko had left the country and returned to Russia.
Our review found no indication that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators ever attempted to resolve the prior Danchenko espionage matter before opening him as a paid CHS. Moreover, our investigation found no indication that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators disclosed the existence of Danchenko’s unresolved counterintelligence investigation to the Department attorneys who were responsible for drafting the FISA renewal applications targeting Carter Page. As a result, the FISC was never advised of information that very well may have affected the FISC’s view of Steele’s primary sub-source’s (and Steele’s) reliability and trustworthiness. Equally important is the fact that in not resolving Danchenko’s status vis-a-vis the Russian intelligence services, it appears the FBI never gave appropriate consideration to the possibility that the intelligence Danchenko was providing to Steele - which, again, according to Danchenko himself, made up a significant majority of the information in the Steele Dossier reports - was, in whole or in part, Russian disinformation.
Danchenko’s Relationship with Charles Dolan
During the relevant time period, Danchenko maintained a relationship with Charles Dolan, a Virginia-based public relations professional who had previously held multiple positions and roles in the Democratic National Committee (“DNC”) and the Democratic Party. In his role as a public relations professional, Dolan focused much of his career interacting with Eurasian clients, with a particular focus on Russia. As described in Section IV.D.l.d.ii, Dolan previously conducted business with the Russian Federation and maintained relationships with several key Russian government officials, including Dimitry Peskov, the powerful Press Secretary of the Russian Presidential Administration. A number of these Russian government officials withwhom Dolan maintained a relationship - and was in contact with at the time Danchenko was collecting information for Steele - would later appear in the Dossier.
In the summer and fall of 2016, at the time Danchenko was collecting information for Steele, Dolan traveled to Moscow, as did Danchenko, in connection with a business conference. As discussed in Section IV.D.l.d.iii, the business conference was held at the Ritz Carlton Moscow, which, according to the Steele Reports, was allegedly the site of salacious sexual conduct on the part of Trump. Danchenko would later inform the FBI that he learned of these allegations through Ritz Carlton staff members. Our investigation, however, revealed that it was Dolan, not Danchenko, who actually interacted with the hotel staff identified in the Steele Reports, so between the two, Dolan appears the more likely source of the allegations.
As discussed in Section IV.D. 1 .d.vi, our investigation also uncovered that Dolan was the definitive source for at least one allegation in the Steele Reports. This allegation, contained in Steele Report 2016/105, concerned the circumstances surrounding the resignation of Paul Manafort from the Trump campaign. When interviewed by the Office, Dolan admitted that he fabricated the allegation about Manafort that appeared in the Steele Report. Our investigation also revealed that, in some instances, Dolan independently received other information strikingly similar to allegations that would later appear in the Steele Reports. Nevertheless, when interviewed by the FBI, Danchenko denied that Dolan was a source for any information in the Steele Reports.
Furthermore, as discussed in Section IV.D.l.d.iii, during the relevant time period, Dolan maintained a business relationship with Olga Galkina, a childhood friend of Danchenko, who, according to Danchenko, was a key source for many of the allegations contained in the Steele Reports. In fact, when Galkina was interviewed by the FBI in August 2017, she admitted to providing Dolan with information that would later appear in the Steele Reports.
The FBI’s Failure to Interview Charles Dolan
Our investigation revealed that the Crossfire Hurricane investigators were aware of Dolan and his connections to Danchenko and the Steele Reports. In fact, as discussed in Section IV.D.l .b.v, in early October 2016, Steele informed the FBI that Dolan was a person who might have relevant information about Trump. The FBI interviewed hundreds of individuals through the course of the Crossfire Hurricane and later investigations, and yet it did not interview Dolan as a possible source of information about Trump. Our investigators interviewed Dolan on several occasions, as well as the two other persons mentioned by Steele. Dolan initially denied being a source of information for the Steele Reports. When, however, he was shown a particular Steele Report relating to Paul Manafort and his resignation as Trump’s campaign manager, along with related emails between himself and Danchenko in August 2016, he acknowledged that the reporting mirrored the information he had provided to Danchenko. Dolan acknowledged to the Office that he fabricated this information. Although both Steele and Olga Galkina suggested to the FBI that Dolan may have had information related to the Steele Reports, our investigation was not able to definitively show that Dolan was the actual source - whether wittingly or unwittingly - for any additional allegations set forth in the Steele Reports. Regardless, in light of the foregoing, there does not appear to have been an objectively sound reason for the FBI’s failure to interview Dolan.Danchenko’s Claims Regarding Sergei Millian
Perhaps the most damning allegation in the Steele Dossier reports was Company Report 2016/95, which Steele attributed to “Source E,” one of Danchenko’s supposed sub-sources. This report, portions of which were included in each of the four Page FISA applications, contributed to the public narrative of Trump’s conspiring and colluding with Russian officials. As discussed in Section IV.D.l.f, Danchenko’s alleged source for the information (Source E) was an individual by the name of Sergei Millian who was the president of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce in New York City and a public Trump supporter. The evidence uncovered by the Office showed that Danchenko never spoke with Sergei Millian and simply fabricated the allegations that he attributed to Millian.
When interviewed by Crossfire Hurricane investigators in late January 2017, Danchenko said that Source E in Report 2016/95 sounded as though it was Sergei Millian. As discussed in Section IVJD.l.f.i, Danchenko stated that he never actually met Millian. Instead, he said that in late-July 2016 he received an anonymous call from a person who did not identify himself, but who spoke with a Russian accent. Danchenko further explained that he thought it might have been Millian - someone Danchenko previously had emailed twice and received no response - after watching a YouTube video of Millian speaking. Thus, as detailed in Section IV.D.l.f.i, the total support for the Source E information contained in Steele Report 2016/95 is a purported anonymous call from someone Danchenko had never met or spoken to but who he believed might be Sergei Millian - a Trump supporter - based on his listening to a YouTube video of Millian. Unfortunately, the investigation revealed that, instead of taking even basic steps, such as securing telephone call records for either Danchenko or Millian to investigate Danchenko’s hard-to-believe story about Millian, the Crossfire Hurricane investigators appear to have chosen to ignore this and other red flags concerning Danchenko’s credibility, as well as Steele’s.
The Alfa Bank Allegations
The Office also investigated the actions of Perkins Coie attorney Michael Sussmann and others in connection with Sussmann’s provision of data and “white papers” to FBI General Counsel James Baker purporting to show that there existed a covert communications channel between the Trump Organization and a Russia-based bank called Alfa Bank. As set forth in Section IV.E.l.c.iii, in doing so he represented to Baker by text message and in person that he was acting on his own and was not representing any client or company in providing the information to the FBI. Our investigation showed that, in point of fact, these representations to Baker were false in that Sussmann was representing the Clinton campaign (as evidenced by, among other things, his law firm’s billing records and internal communications). In addition, Sussmann was representing a second client, a technology executive named Rodney Joffe (as evidenced by various written communications, Sussmann’s subsequent congressional testimony, and other records).Cyber experts from the FBI examined the materials given to Baker and concluded that they did not establish what Sussmann claimed they showed. At a later time, Sussmann made a separate presentation regarding the Alfa Bank allegations to another U.S. government agency and it too concluded that the materials did not show what Sussmann claimed. In connection with that second presentation, Sussmann made a similar false statement to that agency, claiming that he was not providing the information on behalf of any client.
With respect to the Alfa Bank materials, our investigation established that Ioffe had tasked a number of computer technology researchers who worked for companies he was affiliated with, and who had access to certain internet records, to mine the internet data to establish “an inference” and “narrative” tying then-candidate Trump to Russia. In directing these researchers to exploit their access in this manner, Ioffe indicated that he was seeking to please certain “VIPs,” in context referring to individuals at Perkins Coie who were involved in campaign matters and the Clinton campaign. During its investigation, the Office also learned that, after the 2016 presidential election, Ioffe emailed an individual and told that person that “[he - Ioffe] was tentatively offered the top [cybersecurity] job by the Democrats when it looked like they’d win.”
As explained in Section IV.E.l.c.i, the evidence collected by the Office also demonstrated that, prior to providing the unfounded Alfa bank claims to the FBI, Sussmann and Fusion GPS (the Clinton campaign’s opposition research firm) had provided the same information to various news organizations and were pressing reporters to write articles about the alleged secret communications channel.

FBI INVESTIGATION ARCTIC FROST: LIST OF TARGETS
/1
List of Arctic Frost targets
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Let me tell you how MSNBC operate, from personal experience, with receipts.
Background: after Pres Trump took office in 2017, I was falsely accused in the Deep State media of being a Russian spy who had an affair with Pres Trump's National Security Advisor Gen Flynn.
Their "source" was Stefan Halper, who masqueraded as a professor in my university. /1 In 2018, when President Trump and Devin Nunes discovered that Stefan Halper, the man who targeted and dirtied up Trump associates, was an FBI/CIA operative.
Halper falsely accused me of being a Russian spy who compromised Trump's NatSec Advisor Gen Flynn.
Deep State media released his name and status as an FBI informant as a "limited hangout" op before the full scale of his activities emerged publicly. /2

From Adm Rogers interview: over a month AFTER Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election, Obama wanted an intelligence assessment that Russia interfered.
He gave intelligence agencies just 2 weeks over Christmas to come up with it. Rogers felt his team were put under political pressure.
The body of the Intelligence Community Assessment draft included the Steele dossier as one pager.
At a meeting with Comey and others Rogers in early January he raised it, Comey said information was relevant, so Rogers' compromise was to include it in the appendix

Walter Giardina’s Role in the “Russia Hoax”

Giardina, recently fired by Kash Patel, is a veteran FBI special agent who has been implicated in several key aspects of the Get Trump op, aka the Russia Hoax Conspiracy.

Documentary evidence and whistleblower accounts show Giardina played an active role in advancing politically charged investigations of Donald Trump and his associates.

Involvement with the Steele Dossier
The Steele dossier was funded by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the DNC. Giardina was as an early conduit for this dubious document within the FBI. According to Senate investigators, Special Agent Giardina was “an initial recipient of the Steele Dossier” inside the FBI and even falsely claimed internally that this Clinton-funded “smear sheet” was corroborated as true. The Steele dossier’s claims were obviously false and manufactured by Clinton. Giardina’s "validation" gave the fake Clinton material unwarranted credibility in the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe. Giardina helped promote the Steele dossier’s use in investigations and surveillance. The FBI relied on Steele’s allegations and related media reports in initiating and expanding the Trump- Russia “investigation”-the witch-hunt. Participation in Launching the Trump-Russia Probe (Crossfire Hurricane)

The FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Trump’s campaign, codenamed Crossfire Hurricane, officially opened in July 2016. Giardina was reportedly “significantly involved” in Crossfire Hurricane from the start, placing him at the heart of the investigation’s origins. Whistleblower evidence indicates he brought a partisan zeal to the effort: Giardina “openly stated his animosity toward President Trump” and even expressed personal motivation to investigate Trump, going so far as to say he’d pursue the case “even if it meant false predication”.

In late summer 2015, a man arrived at Cambridge University to join a summer course in intelligence studies, ran by my professor Chris Andrew.
His name was Alan Kohler and he was an FBI liaison with London. He previously been to Cambridge and gave presentations about FBI counter-intelligence work /1 So it wasn’t Kohler’s first visit to Cambridge but this time he came for a whole summer and joined a course for students-a course he could teach himself. I asked him why, he said he wasn’t interested in working for the FBI anymore, and wanted to pursue an academic career. He asked my advice about how to pursue a PhD, and I explained how. I took his story at face value. Why would a senior person at the FBI lie? /2

Betrayed by the FBI—My Fight for Justice
For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad (Luke 8:17)
On Friday, March 14, 2025, the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the United States, President Donald Trump, made a historic appearance at the Department of Justice. He told his audience that “the American
people have given us a mandate…and a far-reaching investigation is what they are demanding into the corruption of our system. We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government. We
will expose their egregious crimes… and severe misconduct… It's going to be legendary.” In his speech, President Trump demanded “full and complete accountability” from those who perpetrated the
Russia Collusion Hoax.
Just as I have done in this book, President Trump’s newly appointed team at the DOJ and FBI will “expose…the egregious crimes and severe misconduct” of Russiagate. President Trump said that We must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred. A
corrupt group of hacks and radicals within the ranks of the American government obliterated the trust and goodwill built up over generations. They weaponized the vast powers of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies to try to thwart the will of the American people. They spied on my campaign, launched one hoax
and disinformation operation after another, broke the law on a colossal scale, persecuted my family, staff, and supporters, raided my home, Mar-a-Lago, and did everything within their power to prevent me from becoming the President of the United States…but I stand before you today to declare that those days are over and they are never going to come back.
President Trump pledged to “restore the scales of justice” and insisted that those responsible for past DOJ “wrongs and abuses” would be held to account. Specifically, this includes former key figures from the
FBI and the Department of Justice—James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and others—who spearheaded the 2016 Trump-Russia investigation code-named “Crossfire Hurricane.” This also includes
Democratic Party operatives, campaign officials for Hillary Clinton, and their lawyers who funded the now-discredited Steele dossier.
President Trump recently underscored the importance of firing FBI Director Comey in a speech at the DOJ, stating: It was a great honor for me to fire James Comey, a great, great honor. There was no better day. A year later, they said that actually saved the administration; because a level of corrupt things that we learned
after that turned out to be that they were doing—really bad things. He was a terrible person, did terrible things, and persecuted people, and all in the guise of being an angel. But he wasn’t an angel.
New FBI Director Kash Patel made it clear that "The FBI is entering a new era—one that will be defined by integrity, accountability, and the unwavering pursuit of justice. There will be no cover-ups, no missing documents, and no stone left unturned— and anyone from the prior or current Bureau who undermines this
will be swiftly pursued. If there are gaps, we will find them. If records have been hidden, we will uncover them. And we will bring everything we find to the DOJ to be fully assessed and transparently disseminated to the American people as it should be. Patel has stated that officials who abused their power must be called
out by name, and that Americans deserve full transparency to judge for themselves. This ethos aligns perfectly with President Trump’s insistence that no wrongdoing be hidden from the public.
On March 25, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order for immediate declassification of materials related to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation. The President has instructed the Attorney General to make declassified materials available to the public immediately. Vindication But Still No Justice
“It’s frightening. Imagine being spied on by your own government— and that spy then fabricates a bunch of lies about everyone,” said Representative Devin Nunes, then the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, after President Trump declassified FBI files in 2021, revealing that the Bureau’s spy Stefan Halper lied about me and General Michael Flynn. “This is evidence that should have come out nearly four years ago,” Nunes continued. “We should have seen what they were doing and how they were running spies into the campaign.”
My experience serves as a warning for the entire nation. As an innocent bystander—a mother, scholar, and historian—I was thrust into the “Spygate” scandal. Stefan Halper, a longtime FBI informant with CIA ties, deliberately and falsely accused me of being a Russian
intelligence agent who ensnared General Michael Flynn, a decorated top U.S. intelligence official. Halper knew his allegations were utterly false. They were manufactured to order, allowing the FBI leadership to
launch an investigation as part of the wider “Clinton Plan” to win the election by smearing Trump.
Yet for years, those false accusations hung over my life and still do. With the willing help of the media pushing Halper’s lies, my career at the University of Cambridge was destroyed, my reputation tarnished, and my personal life disrupted—all because of lies. Worse still, FBI documents show that, from the start, the Bureau knew there was no evidence to substantiate his claims. Yet they did nothing to correct the
record, allowing “current and former intelligence officials” to leak the false narrative to the press and sustain their sham investigation. The FBI paid Halper large amounts of taxpayer money and protected him.
They have never publicly disavowed his story, never investigated him and continued using him even after it became clear that he had blatantly lied. I have yet to receive any justice or compensation.
But this foreword is not just about my vindication; it’s about what my case reveals on a larger scale. My ordeal shows how easily truth can fall victim when powerful figures in government and media conspire to promote a false narrative. This was no isolated error—it was a
symptom of a deep malaise within the FBI and part of a broader conspiracy to mislead the American public. So far, nearly $90 million in public funds have been squandered investigating and reinvestigating
events, without punishing blatant FBI misconduct. No one has been held accountable—yet.
My nightmare is a microcosm of a national scandal. Officials abused their power, leaked lies to the press and an innocent person was collateral damage. The truth was nearly lost amid a politically charged
hoax. My vindication is more than a personal victory; it is the exposure of corruption, and a warning of what happens when law enforcement and political operatives betray the public trust. With righteous indignation, I present the facts of this case—facts that prove beyond any doubt that I was innocent all along, and that those who smeared me knew it from the beginning.

This was declassified by Pres Trump in first term.
Biden's FBI re-classified it for 69 years to 2091, prior to the Mar-o-Lago raid
Pres Trump now declassified the document of Halper's meeting with FBI
Let's compare to see what they tried to hide
L: Classified R: Unclassified
These three pages were completely gone from the FBI Crossfire Hurricane files.
Now that Pres Trump declassified the documents, we can see they show how Halper lied about Gen Flynn (Crossfire Razor) and Carter Page (Crossfire Dragon), used Cambridge University as the base for his operations and organized a hit on Papadopolous (Crossfire Typhoon)

Chronology of the Clinton Plan.
July 6, 2016: FBI snitch, CIA ops and political dirty tricks guy Stefan Halper gives a speech at Cambridge, says the only way Hillary can win is to distract from her email server problems by getting the media to focus negatively on Trump. /1 July 11-12, 2016
Steven Schrage, a CIA-connected pupil of dirty operative “professor” Halper, holds a conference at the University of Cambridge.
Present are: Hillary proxy Madeline Albright, former MI6 head Richard Dearlove, Carter Page, Australian ambassador Alexander Downer. /2

Hello, America!

Let me introduce (or re-introduce) myself.

My name is Svetlana. I was born in Soviet Union and emigrated to England aged 18. I am a British citizen. I am a historian, teacher and author.

I studied at the University of Cambridge, achieved BA (Hons), MA, MPhil and was a PhD candidate specialising in European History when my life was turned upside down.

I am an ordinary person who got dragged into extraordinary events.

In a quiet English university town, a bunch of old intelligence operatives were plotting how to stop Donald Trump, the disruptor/change candidate.

(To be continued.) In 2014, I was a postgraduate student at Cambridge University. I was teaching Modern European History and doing my PhD research.
A distinguished visitor came to Cambridge: Head of Defense Intelligence Agency LTG Michael Flynn. I was invited, together with other students, to attend a talk given by @GenFlynn followed by a formal dinner. The dinner was hosted by former head of British intelligence, the Master of Pembroke college Richard Dearlove. My professor Christopher Andrew told me to attend. He wanted me to show my historical research to Gen Flynn.
(To be continued)

Hello, America!
Big week for transparency and accountability for the Russia Hoax.
A recap:
-Dir of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard gave an update. She said Pres Trump takes transparency and accountability very seriously
The Office of the DNI are working diligently to source evidence across the Intelligence Community—the CIA, the NSA, etc.
The goal is to hold those responsible to account for the Russia Hoax. /1 “The more we dig, the more we find”- DNI Gabbard, referring to the Russia Hoax documents.
Despite encountering resistance, her team are finding more and more documents and passing them onto US Attorneys for use in potential prosecutions /2

Top Russia Collusion Hoaxers.
Let’s start with Andy McCabe.
Q: “Do you still believe the President could be a Russian asset?”
“I think it’s possible. That’s why we started our investigation, and I’m really anxious to see where Mueller concludes that” (February 19, 2019, CNN) Top Russia Collusion Hoaxers
Adam Schiff
“There is more than circumstantial evidence now… to suggest that Trump’s campaign may have colluded with Russia’s attempts to disrupt the election.” (March 22, 2017, MSNBC)

History repeating?

May 2018: "Far from the top-secret, covert intelligence asset the FBI has depicted him as, Stefan Halper is a longtime, well-known CIA operative, with ties to the Bush family and a shady past."

theintercept.com/2018/05/19/the… "Despite what Halper actually is, the FBI and its dutiful mouthpieces have spent weeks using the most desperate language to try to hide Halper’s identity and the work he performed as part of the 2016 election. "
theintercept.com/2018/05/19/the…

History of the 4th (final) FISA on team Trump that might be relevant to the current news.
The warrant application was made in June 2017, six months into Trump presidency, and lasted until Sept'17.
It was signed by Rosenstein/McCabe and approved by judge.
It lacked probable cause 2/ When the fourth FISA (that was found to lack probable cause) was released in 2018 it looked like this:

This paid-for, lying fraud thinks everything is forgotten. It is not.
--On October 11, 2016, Steele met with the State Department and stated that his client, the DNC "is keen" to see the Russia/Trump info (lies) he put together to "come to light" prior to the election. /1

https://twitter.com/Chris_D_Steele/status/1534909081508622337

At the same meeting with the State Dept one month before the presidential election, Steele stated that his priority is "Managing: -client (DNC) needs, -FBI, -Washington Post/New York Times." /2

Media coverage of the D-Day landings, in pictures.

June 7, 1944, the Times of London The Scotsman

#SpecialCounselDurham

Hillary campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann's criminal trial is reaching its conclusion.

On Day 10, Friday, the Jury will be read closing statements by the prosecution and defence,

Next, it's time for deliberation. /1 In the last 8 days, we heard from 20 witnesses.
17 were for the prosecution.
Sussmann declined to testify in his own defence.
A witness for the defence, former NYT reporter, pulled out. /2

Revisiting this BBC article. "Trump 'compromising' claims: How and why did we get here?"By Paul Wood
BBC News, Washington
Published 12 January 2017
bbc.com/news/world-us-… BBC: On 15 October [2016], the US secret intelligence court issued a warrant to investigate two Russian banks. This news was given to me by several sources and corroborated by someone I will identify only as a senior member of the US intelligence community
bbc.com/news/world-us-…

Trump/Alfabank: Steele-Sussmann-FBI-Ohr (thread)
July 29, 2016: Sussmann tells Steele about the suspicious network traffic between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank /1 Sometime after the Steele-Sussmann meeting on July 29, Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS instructed Steele to write a report about Alfabank /2

Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia
"The article has changed 3 times. This article was first published or seen on November 01, 2016 01:24 (UTC).
You can find the current article at its original source at nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/…"
newssniffer.co.uk/articles/12599… newssniffer.co.uk/articles/12599…

Chicago
Some time in 2016
#SpecialCounselDurham