Saturday, April 11, 2020

Newly declassified footnote shows that the FBI had evidence that the Steele dossier contained Russian disinformation

We now know, contrary to Adam Schiff's lies, that the FISA warrant to spy on the Trump campaign was granted solely on the basis of the Steele dossier.

We also know that Hillary paid for the dossier, Steele didn't want Trump elected, the sources were all anonymous Russians, and that the FBI admitted it couldn't verify the claims the dossier contained.

Now we also know that as early as 2015 the FBI had expressed concerns about the frequent meetings Steele, a British national, was having with Russian oligarchs including at least one who was close to Putin.

Further we've also recently learned that the FBI had sources that said that at least some of the content of the dossier was false and that some may have been deliberate Russian disinformation.

We know this because this footnote in the IG report was just declassified due to the pressure applied by Republican Senators Grassley and Johnson.  Without their efforts the deep state would have kept this hidden from us forever.

Here's what the newly declassified footnote says:

Partially declassified footnote 350 from the Justice Department inspector general’s report on FISA abuse (via Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office)

First it talks about concerns about Steele's close relationship with Russian oligarchs who would have good reason to lie about Trump since he has been much harder on Russia than Obama was.

Then we hear that a reliable source saying that Steele's story about Cohen was wrong.  Further that the Cohen story was possibly deliberate disinformation spread by Russian intelligence.

Why was this footnote classified in the first place?  Clearly all the really classified information, the sources, is still protected so the only reason to not have declassified this before was either a serious amount of over classification zeal or a desire to keep we the people from knowing that even as Comey and the FBI told the FISA court that the Steele dossier was reliable they knew that it wasn't.

Now that's a scandal. The FBI lying to the FISA court to obtain a warrant to spy on the opposing parties political campaign. Doesn't get much more police state fascist than that.

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