credit: Christopher Weyant, Boston Globe
BC Idonwanna sez: The twit stops here!
In the continuing saga of the Russian Connection: a senior Justice Department lawyer was told by a former British spy, Christopher Steele, that Russian intelligence believed 'it has Trump over a barrel', according to AP reports. No surprise at Persona Non Grata; numerous posts over the past several months have suggested that Mr. Yuge is compromised by his Russian connection. That the intelligence services or President Putin (probably one in the same) possess kompromat on the US President goes a long way in explaining Hair Further's quixotic behavior and public statements concerning Russia and its authoritarian president.
The Justice Department lawyer, Bruce Ohr, says that Trump contacts took place with higher Russian officials than previously admitted. Ohr described his breakfast meeting with Steele to House legislators this Tuesday. AP sources agreed to reveal the meeting's content on condition of anonymity. Trump is apparently so threatened by Ohr's potential revelations about his collusion with Russian officials to influence the 2016 election, that he has proposed stripping Ohr of his security clearance, a death sentence for Ohr's decades-long career as a federal prosecutor.
Contrary to partisan allegations, the FBI's investigation of Russian contacts with Trump campaign officials pre-dated the Steele Dossier prepared by Fusion GPS, a private intelligence firm, at the request of the Democratic National Committee. Attended by Ohr, Steele, and his associate, the breakfast took place amid ongoing FBI concerns about Russian election interference and possible communication with Trump associates. The FBI formally launched its counter-intelligence investigation on July 31, 2016, one day after the breakfast meeting took place, but was initially based on information about Russian hackers penetrating Democratic email accounts. So much for Trump's mantra of the investigation constituting a "witch hunt".
Because Ohr did not proactively reveal his meeting with Steele to Justice Department superiors, he was stripped of his associate deputy general attorney position in 2017 as director of a grant distribution program known as the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces. Ohr and Steele spent years in an attempt to 'flip' Russian oligarchs. One of those approached was Oleg Deripaska, known as "Putin's Oligarch" for his close association with the Russian president. The Department of State helped facilitate meetings for the secret operation by allowing Deripaska to visit the United States on a diplomatic passport in 2015 and 2016. In 2017 Ohr reportedly asked Deripaska to "give up Manafort", referring to Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign chairman who was recently convicted of money laundering crimes under an indictment brought by Robert Mueller's wide-ranging investigation.
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| credit: The New Yorker Wackydoodle sez: They'all put in a clown allrite! |