Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

8 Page Memo

Today and Tomorrow I'll be looking at the Grassley/Graham, 8 Page memo. This memo is important because it proves that James Comey then Director of the FBI knew the Steele Dossier was misleading, unreliable and lacking in credibity. He briefed President Elect Trump that the contents were salacious and unverified. Knowing this he allowed the FBI use the material in the Dossier to form the basis for petitioning the FISA court to grant a warrant to spy on members of an opposition party.

To begin with I'll use the dates in both the 4 Page Nunez Memo as well as the 9 Page Grassley/Graham memo to organize the contents into a time line. In order to provide a broader context I'll use as a source Keward Kleing's book "All out War, the plot to destroy Trump.

Early Summer 2016 (May?): Edward Klein All out War, Chapter 3 page 21. Somewhere in the May timeframe of 2016 two attempts were made to Obtain FISA warrants to surveil Trump Towers, The Trump Golf Course, in New Jersey and Mar el Lago in Florida. First on a Sunday two low echelon DOJ lawyers got a FISA Judge to come to a secure Courthouse and made their plea. There are transcripts of how the oral arguments were presented . The Judge, in an all but unprecendented decision, turned down the first request and rescheduled for the following Wednesday. The next week Sally Yates showed up followed by a dozen lawyers from the DOJ, The FBI and the NSA. The FISA judge listened to the arguments, arranged a teleconference with other FISA judges and ruled to deny the petition. A red flag had been raised twice on a matter that here-to- for was a virtual rubber stamp. In his ruling the Judge voiced strong suspicions that the request was an attempt at using "Reverse Intelligence." (A fishing expedition). Since there are only 11 of these judges and they network on a regular basis the "Hoodwinked" argument, currently in vogue, fails to hold much water.

June 2016: Christopher Steele hired by Fusion GPS to gather opposition research on then Presidential Donald Trump. In keeping with the arrangement Steele prepared a series of documents that were made to look like those typically used in intelligence gathering and compiled into a "Dossier."

September 2016: Steele briefs journalists on the Dossier from the Washington Post, Yahoo News, The New Yorker, and CNN.

September 23, 2016: The Justice Department FISA application quoted two sources. The first was the Steele Dossier and the second was a newspaper article that quoted parts of the Dossier leaked to the press by Mr. Steele. Presumably this is the Yahoo News story written by Michael Isikoff, titled "US Intel Officials Probe ties between Trump Advisor and Kremlin.

October 19 2016: Memorandum by Mr. Steele claims that his company received information from the US State Department. This report was one of two that came from a foreign sub-source. A friend of the Clinton's (Sidney Bluminthal?)passed it on. This shows that information was passed to Steele, to bulk up the Dossier, that did not originate from his alleged sources inside Russia.

October 16, 2016: Klein reports the FBI files third attempt to obtain a FISA warrant.

October 21, 2016: FBI files first warrant under FISA for Carter Page. The bulk of the petition against Page came from Steele as outlined in the Dossier. This made up the whole application except for a news article, sourced to Steel as well. The FBI vaguely mentioned Steele's reliability in footnote 8 and 18 to the application, and to a limited extent the political origins of the source document. In footnote 8 the FBI says information was compiled by a law firm who had hired Glen Simpson of Fusion GPS. The application did not disclose that Mr. Simpson's client was the Clinton Campaign and the DNC.

The application did not reveal the underlying bogus nature of the supporting document nor did it reveal that the author had fallen from favor with the FBI by leaking to the press in October and lies he had only provided copies of the Dossier to his business partner and the FBI. His deceptions ruined the official cover story that allowed the FBI to hide behind Steele's credibility, a credibility they had long known did not exist. However, most importantly, beyond an obscure footnote, were the political motivations behind the Dossier revealed and as some claim, artfully concealed from the Judge.

Note: There is a conflict in the Dates between Klein and Grassley/Graham memo. In addition the memo fails to acknowledge the earlier attempts to obtain a warrant from the FISA court.

November 2016: Christopher Steele completes compiling..."pre-election memoranda (Dossier).

January 2017: The Dossier was published in Buzzfeed. It claimed to be using sources in the Russian Government. Fusion GPS was client of the Law Firm, Perkins Coie which worked on behalf of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Clinton Campaign, serving as a conduit for passing along the opposition research.

January 2017: Comey briefs President Elect Trump on the Dossier which he described as "salacious" and "Unverified."

January 2017: Application to renew warrant on Carter Page. FBI reveals in footnote 9 that their relationship with Steele had been severed because of unauthorized disclosures to the press.

March 15, 2017 the Committee Chair (Grassley) was briefed by then director James B. Comey Jr. The topic of the briefing was the FBI's relationship with Mr. Steele and how much the FBI was relying on the Dossier in filing two applications under the Foreign Surveillance and Intelligence Act (FISA)... Then Director Comey stated that.. (REDACTED)

"...When asked why the FBI relied so much on the Dossier, absent corroboration and the political motivations surrounding its creation.." Comey stated that the dossier was included because Mr. Steele was considered reliable since his past work had not called his reputation into question.

March 17, 2017: Grassley and a ranking member received copies of both petitions used before the FISA court requesting permission to surveil Carter Page.

Note, see above: On January 2017 Comey briefed Trump that the Dossier was "Salacious" and "Unverified." Then on March 15, 2017 Comey states that the Dossier was considered reliable because Mr. Steele was still considered a reliable source. How can Comey claim the Dossier is not credible on the one hand and then turn around and use it in the application for a FISA warrant?

April 2017: The first leak of these filings is reported in the media. The FBI did not disclose to the FISA that Steele had lied to the FBI. The FBI received information from Bruce Orr who through his wife had close ties with Fusion GPS. REDACTED...He stated that Steele... "Was desperate to to see that President Trump was not elected president. This is important on two counts. It speaks to his credibility especially since his claims were not corroborated and his sources questionable.

June 2017: Comey testifies publicly before Senate Select Committee that he'd briefed Trump on dossier allegations and told the President that they were salacious and unverified.

Note: This was not the first warrant requested to surveil Trump associates. Earlier in the year two attempts were made to surveil Trump Tower, Trump Golf Course in New Jersey and Mar el Rey in Florida. See The Plot to Destroy Trump.

The FBI told the FISA court that based upon a reliable past reporting history, that Steele was a good source and information in the petition was credible. The truth is that the FBI relied on uncorroborated information, "funded by and obtained for..." Hillary's campaign in order to conduct surveillance on "...an associate of the opposing presidential candidate." The FBI held to the claim that Mr. Steele was a credible source, had proven his reliability in the past, and thereby the government had faith that his modus operandi and information were essentially accurate, professional and unbiased.

While this was the official explanation the thread was beginning to unravel. There was substantial cause to believe this cover story was not true... evidence suggesting that Mr. Steele had misled the FBI on key aspects of the dossier and that these evasions bore on his credibility. PARAGRAPH REDACTED.

The FISA application attempts to explain away the inconsistency that Steele had leaked the Dossier to the press in September 2916 and still remained a trusted and credible source. Leaking and credibility are mutually exclusive. This is important because while the FBI knew the dossier was salacious and unverified as early as January, when James Comey briefed Donald Trump. In order to use it in obtaining a warrant the official story line had to remain that the Steele remained a credible source. Once Steel began leaking to the press this thin veneer of pretext went right out the window. Once that happened the FBI could no longer officially hide behind Steele and posit they were they were unaware their principle source was trustworthy.