ספעשיל קאנסיל מולער'ס אויספארשונג - והמסתעף

[וויכטיג מאכער]

אי"ה"נ, ס"ה האבעך געשריבן וויזוי זאכן קוקן מיר אויס אויבן אויף...

[יעך'בין שוין גרויס]

אפשר סטעי טאאנד מיינט דאס:

http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/401185 ... bout-trump

[Goodmorning]

קענסטו ביטע פאוסטען פאר די וואס די פילטער לאזט נישט ליינען?

[blue moon]

אפשר סטעי טאאנד מיינט דאס:

http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/401185 ... bout-trump

דער באהויפטער פון משומר זאגט איך זאל נישט ליינען וואס עס שטייט דארט. אפשר זענט איר זיך מסביר?

[Goodmorning]

אפשר סטעי טאאנד מיינט דאס:

http://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/401185 ... bout-trump

דער באהויפטער פון משומר זאגט איך זאל נישט ליינען וואס עס שטייט דארט. אפשר זענט איר זיך מסביר?

איך האלט משומר איז געהעריג א חלק פון די דיעפ סטעיט

[גארנישט מיט נישט]

קענסטו ביטע פאוסטען פאר די וואס די פילטער לאזט נישט ליינען?

A memory stick quietly exchanged in a coffee shop.

An admission of a “Hail Mary” leak.

An unmistakable effort to push the Russia investigation closer to Donald Trump’s inner circle with uncorroborated tales.

Those are just some of the highlights from the day that Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson — paid by Hillary Clinton’s campaign to find dirt on her GOP rival — met secretly with a top Justice Department official, right after Trump won the 2016 election.

And all of it was captured in the official’s handwritten notes — a contemporaneous record that intelligence professionals tell me exposes the flaws plaguing the early Russia collusion case.

For example, Simpson told then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr during the Dec. 10, 2016, meeting in a Washington coffee shop that he believed Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, was the “go-between from Russia to the Trump campaign.”

Yet, Simpson allegedly acknowledged that most of the information Fusion GPS and British intelligence operative Christopher Steele developed did not come from sources inside Moscow. “Much of the collection about the Trump campaign ties to Russia comes from a former Russian intelligence officer (? not entirely clear) who lives in the U.S.,” Ohr scribbled in his notes.

In those notes, Ohr repeatedly misspells Simpson’s first name as “Glen.”

Cohen has emphatically and repeatedly denied any role in connecting Russia to the Trump campaign. His lawyer, Lanny Davis, declined comment Thursday.

Simpson admitted in sworn testimony last year to the House Intelligence Committee that he had contact with Ohr after Trump’s election victory. But Ohr’s notes provide the first detailed public account of what the two men actually discussed.

Congressional investigators now are scouring them for evidence that Simpson and Steele had influence over the Russia probe, even after Steele was dismissed as an FBI informant in November 2016. Investigators want to know if any players in the Russia probe gave Congress false testimony.

One notation that stands out is Simpson’s account that he asked Steele to talk with Mother Jones reporter David Corn about their muckraking on Trump and Russia in the final days of the election. At the time, Steele still worked as an FBI source.

Corn’s Oct. 31, 2016, story was one of the most definitive to allege possible ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow, creating an important talking point for Democrats in the final days of the campaign.

“Glen asked Chris to speak to the Mother Jones reporter. It was Glen’s Hail Mary attempt,” Ohr wrote.

When Simpson testified before Congress, he said he and Steele acted out of a sense of duty. “For him it was professional obligations. I mean, for both of us it was citizenship. You know, people report crimes all the time,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In his House testimony, though, he conceded not knowing if what he and Steele dug up amounted to a crime: “At the time that we — you know, that Chris decided to take this to the FBI, I wasn't convinced of the facts of anything in terms of — I wasn't convinced that there was a specific crime that occurred.”

So, congressional investigators want to know why — if Simpson acted purely on the basis of civic duty — he and Steele went to the press shortly before Election Day with allegations before the FBI completed its work.

Simpson’s lawyer, Josh Levy, did not return a call seeking comment.

Much of the other information attributed to Simpson that December day, according to Ohr’s notes, involved admittedly uncorroborated allegations — such as claims that a computer server in a Russian-owned bank was secretly transmitting messages to the Trump campaign, or that the NRA was secretly taking money from a Russian official. Many of the claims eventually made their way into news reports.

Ohr made clear he took possession of some evidence from Simpson, writing: “Glen gave me a memory stick.”

Early on, Ohr’s notes detail, the conversation focused on a theory apparently offered by Simpson that revolving Trump team members — former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, followed by informal adviser Carter Page, then Cohen — forged a secret channel with Moscow to hijack the election.

All three men long have been cited in the Russia investigation; each denies any coordination with Russia. But Ohr’s notes are the first to quote Simpson as suggesting the three essentially were shark-tooth spies who replaced each other in a secret plot.

“He identified Michael Cohen, a lawyer in Brooklyn w. Russian (Brighton Beach) clients, as the go-between from Russia to the Trump campaign who replaced Manafort and Carter Page,” Ohr’s notes read, quoting Simpson’s alleged narrative.

The notes suggest guilt by association, citing Cohen’s wife and suggesting one of Cohen’s in-laws had real estate dealings in Moscow “with ties to the Kremlin.”

“Cohen may have attended a meeting in Prague, possibly in September, about this,” Ohr quoted Simpson as saying — a claim that became public a month later, in January 2017, when BuzzFeed published a version of Steele’s uncorroborated dossier.

Cohen’s lawyers have rebutted every mention of their client in the dossier, pointedly noting he has never been to Prague.

Cohen, now under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York, has hinted he may have information damaging to Trump. But special counsel Robert Mueller has signaled he's not currently interested in Cohen, letting U.S. attorneys in Manhattan take the first crack at his case.

Two days after Ohr's meeting with Simpson, the senior Justice Department official met with the FBI and submitted to an interview about what he had learned.

I shared the Ohr notes I obtained to career intelligence professionals with years of experience analyzing data, sorting the reliable from the garbage.

All had the same reaction: The information, on face value, has the lowest level of credibility. It was second- or third-hand, they noted, and couched with lots of caveats like “may,” “possibly” and “others disagree.”

The alleged Simpson statement that he went to the media as a “Hail Mary” stood out to those professionals as an act of desperation that they would see as weighing against the motives of an intelligence source.

A couple of the experts flagged that most of what Simpson allegedly told Ohr was not from Moscow — where the alleged plot was supposed to be based — but from a reported Russian in the United States who later seemed to disappear, according to Ohr’s notes.

“First thing I’m wondering is whether that Russian was part of a ‘kompromat' operation to further roil the U.S. election rather than a whistleblower,” one of the experts opined.

And all wondered why a Justice official — Ohr — who was not in the chain of command in the Russia counterintelligence probe, and whose wife worked for Fusion GPS on the Trump project, interviewed Simpson at all.

The Ohr interview and many other now-public actions in the Russia collusion case are “breaking every protocol at the fundamental level of intelligence gathering,” one highly decorated intelligence professional told me.

Whatever their assessment, Congress has a wide, new mandate to investigate the Simpson-Ohr-Steele contacts with renewed vigor and lots of questions that did not exist just a few short weeks ago: What was on the memory stick? What did Ohr do with the information? Did the FBI rely on it for future court actions? Did the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court that approved surveillance warrants know Ohr was getting information from the Simpson-Steele operation after Steele had been dismissed?

Those answers could make for a long, politically hot autumn in Washington.

John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist whose work over the years has exposed U.S. and FBI intelligence failures before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal scientists’ misuse of foster children and veterans in drug experiments, and numerous cases of political corruption. He is The Hill’s executive vice president for video.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill.

[משה11]

Andrew Miller has been held in contempt for defying an order to testify in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
Miller is a former aide to political operative and longtime confidant of President Donald Trump, Roger Stone.
Miller lost a legal challenge earlier this month in U.S. District Court against Mueller's subpoena for him to appear before a grand jury.

A former aide to political operative and longtime confidant of President Donald Trump, Roger Stone, has been held in contempt for defying an order to testify in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

That aide, Andrew Miller, lost a lawsuit earlier this month in U.S. District Court challenging Mueller's subpoena requiring him to appear before a grand jury.

Miller's lawyer, Paul Kamenar, told CNBC in a phone call that Miller refused to comply with the subpoena "in order to be held in contempt and appeal the judge's underlying decision" rejecting his lawsuit.


Outside a Washington federal courthouse on Friday, Miller's attorneys said that they are intentionally challenging the legitimacy of the Russia investigation, specifically regarding Mueller's appointment.

They said the case is now headed to the Court of Appeals, and they hope it will reach the Supreme Court, NBC News reported.

Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said he doesn't think Miller is likely to find a welcome greeting in the D.C. appeals court. "They are used to resolving, as is [U.S. District Court Judge Beryl] Howell, these kind of disputes," he said, arguing that the Supreme Court has spoken to these narrow issues of authority "pretty clearly."

"I think he's swimming upstream," Tobias said of Miller.

The special counsel's office declined to comment.

Miller is one of a handful of Stone's associates who have been targeted in Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Kristin Davis, the former "Manhattan Madam" who worked with Stone and Miller in a 2010 New York gubernatorial campaign, told NBC News she would appear before the special counsel's grand jury on Friday. Davis, who was subpoenaed last month, has said "I don't have anything" to offer regarding Russian collusion, but has agreed to cooperate with Mueller's requests.

CNBC previously reported that Mueller looking into Stone's ties to ex-Trump campaign advisor Rick Gates, who struck a plea deal with Mueller back in February and agreed to fully cooperate with the probe.

Stone's lawyer, Robert Buschel, told CNBC at the time that "Roger Stone did not have any substantive or meaningful interaction with Rick Gates during or leading up to the 2016 campaign."

[וויכטיג מאכער]

קוקט אויס גאר אינטערעסאנט... דזשוליאני האלט געלאזט פאלן האלבע ווערטער אויף הענעטי אז דער עולם גייט געוואור ווערן די שייגעץ שטיק, און יעצט די טוויט... עפעס ערענסט קוקט אויס גייט געשעהן... אדער בלויז טראמפ... ער וויל צורקידרייען די מידיע זאל רעדן פון מוללער...

מער און מער קוקט אויס ווי ס'גייט טאקע עפעס פאר, סטראוק איז נארוואס געפלויגן, נעכטן האט לינדזי גרעהם געזאגט אז די גאנצע אינוועסטיגעישן אויף טראמפ איז קאראפטעד צום שורש... דעווין נוניעז האט געזאגט אז די קלינטאן קאמפיין האט קעלודעד מיט די טאפ חברה פון די DOJ... קוקט אויס ווי ס'איז דא עפעס קלעסיפייד אינפאו וואס די חברה ווייסן שוין, מעגליך אז די IG ריפארט גייט ארויסקומען?

[אלי' מקוה יוד]

ימים ידברו..

[צוקער וואסער]

Bruce Ohr, former Associate Deputy AG, will be in front of Congress on August 28th. His wife worked for Fusion GPS, the oppo research firm for Clinton.
jim jordan

[וויכטיג מאכער]

קוק אויס ווי ער איז נעקסט צו פליען, און מעגליך מער...

[יעך'בין שוין גרויס]

BREAKING: New Texts Reveal Steele Anxious Over Comey Testimony, Hopes “Firewalls Will Hold” -

[Think and Thank]

BREAKING: New Texts Reveal Steele Anxious Over Comey Testimony, Hopes “Firewalls Will Hold” -

צו וועם האט ער געטעקסט? וויאזוי האט מען געלייגט א האנט דערויף?

[אלי' מקוה יוד]

BREAKING: New Texts Reveal Steele Anxious Over Comey Testimony, Hopes “Firewalls Will Hold” -

קען עס איינער טייטשן אויף יודיש?

[Think and Thank]

מען האט געטראפן טעקסטס פון קריסטאפער סטיל וואו ער שרייבט אז ער איז באזארגט איבער קאומי'ס אויפטריט פאר קאנגרעס (עס איז געווען גלייך פאר די אויפטריט) און אז ער 'האפט אז די פייערוואלס וועלן ארבעטן'.

[אלי' מקוה יוד]

וואס מיינט פייערוואלס?

[Think and Thank]

אין די היינטיגע שפראך מיינט עס א באשיצונגס וואנט געמאכט צו פארמיידן אומגעווינטשענע אריינדרינגער (מ'נוצט עס געווענליך ביי קאמפיוטערס).

די אריגינעלע מקור איז פון הונדערטער יארן צוריק ווען אלע הייזער זענען געווען געבויעט מיט האלץ, האט מען יעדע פאר הייזער געמאכט א וואנט - אדער א גאנצע הויז - מיט ציגל אז אויב געשעט חלילה א שריפה זאל זיך די פייער דארט אפשטעלן.

[אלי' מקוה יוד]

ער האט מסתם געמאכט א דשאוק...

[Think and Thank]

ס'איז א גאנצע שקלא וטריא אין די פוסקים וואס די דין איז אין אזא פאל. פון איין זייט האט ער דאך געשריבן אז ער איז נערוועז, און ווען מען איז נערוועז האט מען געווענליך נישט קיין נערוון צו דזשאוקס. אבער אויפ'ן צד אז ער האט געמאכט א דזשאוק, אפשר איז די גאנצע נערוועזיגקייט געווען א דזשאוק, און אז ער איז בכלל נישט געווען נערוועז האט ער דאך געקענט מאכן א דזשאוק, האט ער דאך שוין געקענט שרייבן פאר א דזשאוק אז ער איז נערוועז, וכו' וכו'.

[Goodmorning]

איין זאך האב איך מיר געלערנט אז אימעילן און טעקסטן אן איבערטראכטן קען אראפברענגן מענטשן

[וויכטיג מאכער]

נאר ווען מ'טוט אומווערדיגע זאכן שטייצעך...

[יעך'בין שוין גרויס]

BREAKING: New Texts Reveal Steele Anxious Over Comey Testimony, Hopes “Firewalls Will Hold” -

צו וועם האט ער געטעקסט? וויאזוי האט מען געלייגט א האנט דערויף?

ער האט עס געשיקט צו Bruce Ohr וואס איז דעמאלטס געווען די associate deputy attorney general , ער ארבעט נאך יעצט דארטן אבער מען האט עם גענידערט זיין אמט.

דער Bruce Ohr זעהט אויס גייט זיין די נעקסטע דיעפ סטעיט איינגעשטעלטע וואס וועט דארפן עפענען א GoFundMe...

[האסט נייעס]

דער Bruce Ohr זעהט אויס גייט זיין די נעקסטע דיעפ סטעיט איינגעשטעלטע וואס וועט דארפן עפענען א GoFundMe...

פלאצטי!

[צוקער וואסער]

קען איינער אראפ ברענגען דזשאלאני לעצטיגע סטראשע צו מוללער?

[הכל הבל]

קען איינער אראפ ברענגען דזשאלאני לעצטיגע סטראשע צו מוללער?

ער האט געזאגט אז זיי האבן שוין גרייט א דרעפט פון א רעאקציע אויב זאל מולער סובפינען דעם פרעזידענט