It is President’s Day Weekend
and like most of the country, Theo is enjoying his weekend off work. Although Theo is not a NASCAR fan, he gets a
text from one of his friends to turn on the Daytona 500. Truth be told, he didn’t even know it was
that weekend but he turns it on and expects to see a horrific crash as that
really is the only reason he can think of that someone would text someone who
isn’t a fan of NASCAR to turn on the Daytona 500. After a little while, Theo sees a familiar
site and smiles. Air Force 1 is flying
low at Daytona as the president is arriving.
Theo texts back. “He sure knows how to make an entrance.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Comes the response
He continues to watch and sees
the presidential limousine along with the suburbans filled with secret service
agents following him as it does a lap around the track. When it’s over, Theo has an idea how twitter
is responding to this but just to confirm he logs on. Sure enough, you have the standard
polarization; conservatives too happy and liberal too mad. It would be unfair to say that Theo was
indifferent but a slight chuckle and a shake of his head was going to be the
extent of his reaction. Conservatives
claiming it was a monumental event and liberals complaining at how
unpresidential and sophomoric it was he believed to be an exaggeration on both
fronts. He swiped off twitter and rolled
his eyes and declared aloud, “that’s President Trump.” As he texted, “Thanks
for that, I needed a laugh after the DOJ dropped the charges against Andy
McCabe.”
Andrew McCabe was the Deputy
Director of the FBI under Obama and was the second highest person in the DOJ
during the Hillary e-mail investigation and the hoax Russian collusion case
against President Trump. When Theo went
back to work after the long weekend, the mood was somber as people were pissed
off about McCabe going free. Theo was
friends with a clerk that worked for Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy
Giuliani. They had lunch together and
Theo expressed, “There really isn’t going to
be any justice for the Democrats is there?”
“You’ve been saying that for a
while.”
“Yea, I know but I hate getting
reminders. I wasn’t too hopeful but
getting confirmation still hurts.”
“It’s so common I don’t even
know what you’re referring to.”
“McCabe leaking the Hillary
Clinton e-mail investigation to the Wall Street Journal’s Devlin Barrett in
October 2016.”
“Oh right. How he leaked the information through Lisa
Page.”
“Who was apparently fucking
McCabe too.”
“Yea she got around. First it was Strzok but then she went after
his boss. Talk about sleeping your way
up.”
“Seriously, you got to laugh to
stop yourself from being so mad.”
“Did you ever stop to think on
why McCabe would leak the Clinton investigation a month before the
election? I mean, didn’t Rosenstein want
to fire Comey for doing precisely that?
Seems like McCabe was on our side.”
“What are you talking about? McCabe’s wife, Jill, was running for office
and Hillary Clinton gave a shitload of money to her so she could run. That alone should have made McCabe recues
himself.”
“Ah, so why would Andy McCabe go
after the person that helped his wife so much?”
“To make it seem like he wasn’t
biased.”
“I see so when you investigate
Donald Trump, you’re a deep state partisan hack that should be fired but if you
investigate Hillary Clinton, you’re just doing it to cover up the fact that
you’re a deep state hack that should be fired.”
“That’s not the issue, the issue
was that he leaked the information to the Wall Street Journal and then when
confronted about it in May 2017, he lied to the FBI. George Papadopoulos and Mike Flynn were
arrested and convicted for that. Papadopoulos
was sentenced and Flynn is about to be.
That wasn’t even the first time McCabe lied under oath because in July
2017, he lied to Inspector General Horowitz in an interview on the same topic.”
“How do you know he’s lying
about leaking it?
“He admitted he leaked it in
August 2017. He claimed that it was just
in passing and he was dealing with a lot of things so just perjured himself
twice because it was no big deal and he had more important things to worry
about. You don’t sit down, swear in and
give a statement in passing. It’s just
nonsense.”
“I’m glad you’re not just
mindlessly ranting like most people. You
actually are familiar with the facts of the case.”
“You don’t seem to be on our
side.”
“Do you believe I’m not loyal to
my direct boss, Mr. Giuliani or the president?”
“I didn’t say that, I’m just
confused at why you’re not as upset as I am.
You don’t seem to be offering any way of explanation.”
“You like fighting with college
liberals after work right?”
“What does that have to do with
it?”
“You believe this to be an open
and shut case right?”
“Yes”
“Why don’t you see what they
think about how open and shut it is?
They won’t even have a testimony from a defense attorney. It’ll just be the general indoctrination from
their college professors. See how
obvious this case is to them. Which bar
are you going to?”
“One by Christian College but
whatever, you know they are crazy liberals and nothing can convince them of
anything that can be construed as positive for the President or negative toward
any of his haters.”
“I think you have your answer to
the question you just asked me then.”
With that, Jim ended lunch and
walked away leaving Theo confused. For
the rest of the day, Theo thought about what Jim had told him but was unsure
what to make of it. He made some pile on
comments with his other co-workers but it was never out of the back of his
mind. Theo decided to do what he was
going to do all along; go to a college bar.
He takes the train to Christian University and sits at the bar and
orders a drink still thinking about it.
Before he can think it through, a 5’7” skinny blond orders a drink. She looks at Theo and states, “You look like
you got the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
“Yea, I have a lot on my mind.”
“Care to share with me?”
“I don’t know why Andy McCabe
wasn’t prosecuted. It can’t just be the
usual cop out that Democrats are above the law.
I’m sick of using that excuse.”
“Because it’s conspiratorial
bullshit.”
“What’s your name?”
“Amy, yours?”
“Theo”
They shook hands and had a
similar conversation that Theo had with Jim except Amy had nothing to offer
that caused Theo to ponder. She clearly
was not really familiar with the case; she just knew she hated President
Trump. Finally, she exclaimed, “Who
cares? Everyone lies. This is the same bullshit that they impeached
Clinton for. It’s against the law to lie
about cheating on your wife now?”
“It is when you’re under oath.”
“What harm was done? Like you said, he did it by accident and just
gave some quick response.”
“Quick response?! The day after
he leaked it, he called the supervisors at the FBI offices in DC and in New
York and bitched then out because the Hillary investigation leaked. How do you blame people for doing something
that you know you did? You’re the second
highest member in the DOJ and you’re attacking your underlings for shit you
did? You see no problem with that? Yelling at them to get their offices in
order. Their offices were in order;
McCabe leaked it.”
“If he wanted to prove he wasn’t
biased, why would he cover it up?”
“No intelligence official wants
to admit to doing something illegal. We
already have the texts between Strzok and Page.
We know the whole plot.”
“Like you said, it was between
Strzok and Page. Sure they claim that
McCabe knew about it in the texts but they’re already liars so why would you
believe them?”
“McCabe was briefing Obama on
this. This wasn’t a rogue
operation. McCabe and Director Comey
knew everything. I hate using the term
‘trust me’ but there’s no way that Strzok and Page just pretended in their
texts that McCabe and Comey knew.”
Theo’s eyes lit up and Amy
snapped back, “You’re right, I don’t trust you.”
“Holy shit, that’s it” Theo
revealed aloud but not really to Amy.
“What are you talking
about? What’s it?”
“If McCabe got prosecuted then
the pressure to drop the Hillary case would be exposed. McCabe would take everyone down with
him. The DOJ isn’t going to prosecute
because many of them have a lot to hide and they don’t want McCabe exposing
them.”
“Now you really sound like a
conspiracy theorist.”
“You mean to say that never
happens?”
“No, I’m sure it does but I
don’t know if it happened here. If
you’re telling me the truth about his wife running for office and funded by
Hillary, then wouldn’t it be the FBI’s responsibility to tell him to recues
himself?”
“Yes, the FBI allowing him to be
a central figure in the Clinton investigation despite his wife taking money
from Clinton would also be exposed if they prosecute McCabe.”
“Looks like you have a new
default explanation for everything.”
Jim walked into the bar and saw
Theo. He stuck out because he was
probably the only person in the bar over 25 and he had beaten that by a
decade. Jim sits down and introduces himself,
“Hi pretty girl, I’m Jim, what’s your name?”
“Umm, don’t molest me. You’re going to treat me as an equal and I’m
not a girl, I’m a woman.”
“My mistake.”
“Yea, it is your mistake now why
don’t you get out of here before I press charges”
“For what? I haven’t touched you. I extended my hand for you to shake and you
opted not to so I haven’t even done that.”
“Assault doesn’t have to be
physical, it can be verbal.”
“I would agree. Tell you what, go down to the police station
and file charges. Let them know that I
assaulted you by referring to you as a pretty girl.”
Amy groaned and stomped away but
stopped once she realized neither man was paying attention to her. Jim turned to Theo, “How do you subject
yourself to this every week?”
“It’s entertaining.”
“You have a strange definition
of that word. I’m just curious, did you
figure out what I meant?”
“Yes, McCabe has dirt on the
very people that I want to prosecute him so they’re not going to let him talk
and bring them all down with them.”
“Very good. You also forget that there was one Obama
acolyte that was prosecuted.”
“Obana’s lawyer Gregg Craig but
he was acquitted.”
“Why wasn’t that part of your
little hissy fit about how Democrats are above the law? He’s a Democrat why wasn’t he above the law?”
“It’s not really Democrats; it’s
anti-Trump people. Craig worked with
Manafort on the Ukraine issues so they figured that since he was linked to
Manafort it would be okay.”
“How did that work out?”
“I already told you, Craig won.”
“Are you suggesting that even
though he was linked to Manafort, who got the harshest sentence out of everyone
in the Trump orbit, he was still a protected class?”
“Yes, because he was Obama’s
lawyer and Obama is their messiah so him and all his apostles are beyond
reproach.”
“I wonder how that made the DOJ
look.”
Theo contemplated this as his
eyes go up and to the right to think about it.
“I think you’re getting at the DOJ was humiliated that they lost the
case with Craig.”
“Why would that humiliate them?”
“Although being linked to
President Trump makes you automatically guilty, being linked to Manafort is
probably third on the list next to your boss.
When you link someone to the third most hated man in DC and he still
gets off, you’re not too good at your job.”’
“Come on. Justice is blind. Craig was prosecuted and went to court as is
his right to due process and after a trial by a jury of his peers, he was found
not guilty.”
“What happened to the
president’s due process?”
“Focus on this case.”
“You said it yourself. It was a jury of his peers. DC is 90% Democrat and Craig was Obama’s
lawyer. He didn’t turn on Obama like
Cohen did. There was no falling out.
When Obama was no longer the president, Craig was no longer the lawyer
so he’s still loyal to Obama, which means he has that protective status and
when 90% of the pool you’re picking from is loyal to Obama like he is, it’s
almost impossible to convict someone that close to Obama.”
“Even if you’re linked to the
third most hated man in DC?”
“Yes even then since you’re
linked to the most beloved man.”
“You know, your faith in people
needs work. I’m sure they’ll take the
responsibility of being a juror very seriously and they will listen to all
witnesses objectively and decide for themselves.”
“What witnesses? The DOJ is bought and paid for by Hillary
Clinton. We have sworn documents and
testimony that McCabe lied under oath twice.”
“Is that such a serious crime?”
“Yes, Bill Clinton was impeached
for it.”
“How did the good people in the
DC public react to that?”
“They were pissed but like I
said 90% of them are Democrats”
“Let’s go back to the jury of
their peers thing. I believe in the
justice system.”
“They don’t care about perjury,
we already established that.”
“Well, maybe the witnesses could
convince them if the documents don’t speak for themselves.”
“The only real witness is Lisa
Page because she’s the one that leaked it to the Wall Street Journal under
McCabe’s direction.”
“That sounds pretty damning to
me.”
“Lisa Page isn’t going to
testify against Andy McCabe!” Theo was shouting now. Although he was able to stay calm with
college kids because he believed them to be brainwashed, it angered him when he
debated people that were actually knowledgeable and still came to the wrong
conclusions. The rant continued, “She
was fucking him. There are tweets of
them toasting each other that he got off.
She is thoroughly and completely on his side. She’s not turning on him.”
“Who’s your star witness then?”
“The FBI and DOJ agents that
that interviewed….no because they’ll just make the same excuses McCabe
did. What about….”
“You trailed off there.”
“There’s no witnesses.”
Amy had come back and was
listening in on their conversation once she realized it was getting
contentious. Jim was endearing himself
to her because he was debating and getting a rise out of Theo. Due to Theo’s silence, Jim turned to Amy and
asked, “What do you think of McCabe’s guilt?”
“He didn’t do anything wrong.”
“See, you couldn’t even convince
her and there was no defense lawyer here defending McCabe. You basically failed to a get an indictment
from a grand jury because there was no opposition; just very simple questions from
me. You know how hard it is to not get a
grand jury to indict? It probably happens
like five times a year.”
“Yea!” blurted out Amy
Theo and Jimmy laughed. Theo turned to Amy, “You do realize you’re
proving his point right? The jury is
going to be made up of people like you so even though it’s obvious that McCabe
leaked, people like you aren’t going to convict him so it’s a losing case.”
“Don’t turn this on me just
because you lost an argument.”
Amy put her arm around Jim’s
shoulder and gave a smug look towards Theo and uttered, “Good job putting that
Trump-supporting cult-worshipping asshole in his place.”
Jim turned towards her, “New age
woman whom I have the highest respect for,” again Amy glared condescendingly at
Theo and then Jim finished, “he’s absolutely right, that was my point. McCabe admitted to lying under oath twice,
which is what the charge was but you ignored it and found him not guilty
anyway. You ignored the facts because of
your own personal bias now could you please take a couple steps back and stop
raping me because I didn’t give you permission to touch me and you put your arm
around my shoulder.”
Amy pulled her arm off him and
glared at him, “You’re patronizing me.”
“I know”
Amy looked back and forth at the
two men with sly smiles on their faces as if they’re trying to hold back from
laughing. She put her head down and
walked away and despite the loudness of the bar, she still heard Theo and Jim
crack up. When they recovered, Theo
posed, “Isn’t this why people set up special counsels though; so that people
aren’t trying their bosses?”
“You mean what Bill Barr and
John Durham are doing?”
“No, that’s not a special
counsel. That’s an Attorney General
investigation.”
Jim shows Theo his phone and as
he looks, he sees that DOJ is opening a new investigation into McCabe, Strzok
and Comey. Jim commands, “Swipe to the
next screen shot.”
Theo does and finds that Barr is
setting up a special counsel to review the Mike Flynn case as to the topic of
the new investigation. “Flynn was
convicted though.”
“The case is over right? So now it’s under the jurisdiction to be
investigated.”
“Doesn’t that contradict
everything we just talked about?”
“Does it? I need to go home to my wife. I’m glad you figured out the first part. Now try that riddle.”
Theo was 6’0” 230 pounds so was
not a small man but the man that was approaching him dwarfed him. Not only was he taller but he was broader
too. Whereas Theo had a belly and was
mostly fat, this specimen was all muscle and looked to be a gym rat. His baby face gave him away as someone that
deserved to be in the bar. He sat next
to Theo and announced, “You’re the sensitive guy that thinks perjury is a big
deal?”
Theo smiled, “Yes, I do believe
in the broken windows policy. If you
don’t prosecute small crimes, then people graduate to and get away with the big
crimes too.”
“That’s nonsense.”
“You don’t think perjury should
be illegal?”
“It should be but it’s like
speeding. You know, a slap on the
wrist. There shouldn’t be jail time for
it.”
“What about Mike Flynn?”
“He deserves to be in jail.”
“For what?”
“Well…..I don’t know what he was
charged for but if he was convicted, it must be really bad.”
“He was convicted for lying to
the FBI.”
The big man put his head down
and opened his mouth to say something but then shut it. He meekly replied, “Well, his lie must have
been much worse. Some lies are worse than others.”
“You can’t argue that Bill
Clinton and Andrew McCabe didn’t do anything wrong by lying under oath and then
condemn Mike Flynn for doing it. That’s
blatant hypocrisy.”
“Whatever man”
The big man didn’t notice but
Theo had tensed up again as he made another epiphany, “Wait a minute, it works
the other way too.”
“Yea…wait what does?”
“If they prosecuted McCabe, then
it provides legitimacy to the Flynn case even though the FBI agents that interviewed
Flynn wrote in their report that they didn’t think he was being deceptive. Then again, the FBI is still loyal to McCabe
so he could find agents to testify to the same thing; especially Lisa Page who
is the closest person to this case. With
this new investigation into the Flynn investigation, you cast a doubt on
Flynn’s conviction while targeting the three guys you wanted to get in the
first place. It makes sense.”
“I’m not quite sure what you’re
getting at but why was Flynn targeted?”
“Three reasons. First because he was outspoken against
Obama’s Iran deal, which was supposed to be his legacy, secondly, he criticized
and exposed the growth of Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Iraq, and lastly he called the
DOJ corruption and exposed how Obama used it as his own personal revenge agency
against his political opponents.”
“Oh, so he’s just another member
of Trump’s conspiracy cult.”
“Actually Flynn was a
Democrat. Why do you think Obama hired
him as his National Security Advisor?
Why do you think he knows so much?”
“Right, so as soon as Obama was
no longer in power, he just jumped ship.
He’s power hungry.”
“No, he criticized Obama while
he was still president. He was actually
fired by Barack Obama. Then he came to
congress to voice his concerns before Trump even was the Republican
candidate. His motivations were strictly
what he saw while working for Obama.”
“Seems like you have it all
figured out.”
“I do. Thank you for letting me bounce the ideas off
you in order for things to click.”
“Ummm, no problem I guess.”
“What’s your name?”
“Buck.”
“I’m Theo”
Despite his size, Buck did not
have a very firm handshake. He walked
away from Theo and went back to talk to Amy.
A girl with straight red hair standing at 5’5” and very petite walked
over and ordered a drink. Theo turned to
her and smiled and she smiled back, “You’re causing quite the ruckus.” She
opined
“I’m not sure what you mean?”
“Three people came to talk to
you and they all walked away annoyed.”
“Pretty sure the guy who
actually left the bar wasn’t annoyed.”
“Two of three then.”
“Yes”
“Ah, okay. Not bad.”
“Thanks, are you going the make
the tri-fecta?”
“Not sure. What did you say to scare them off?”
“A lot of things but basically
they found out I was a Trump supporter.”
“Yea, that doesn’t go over very
well in this town.”
“No, it does not.”
“So what happened? You were talking and you let it slip and they
ran off?”
“Well, with the girl it was that
I made fun of her for thinking that someone was not guilty even when they admitted
in unofficial questioning that he perjured himself. The guy; it was defending Mike Flynn and
talking about how he was a target of the Obama campaign.”
“Just to play Devil’s advocate,
if Obama really hated Flynn, then why was the FISA on Carter Page and Crossfire
Hurricane about Papadopoulos?”
Theo sighed, “That is a little
convoluted to answer. How much time do
you have?”
“All night, honey. I don’t have class tomorrow.”
“Well then first I need to show
you this excerpt from IG Horowitz report.”
“The one that said the DOJ did
nothing wrong.”
“That’s not what it said. Even when they interviewed Horowitz on
Capitol Hill, he said it was a mischaracterization.”
“I guess I’ll let the document
do the talking.”
“I’m Theo by the way.”
“Becky.”
Theo hands Becky the phone and
she read through it. It’s a footnote
saying that on August 10, 2016, the FBI had a team investigating if Trump
colluded with the Russians. Based on this,
they opened a case on Carter Page, George Papadopoulos and Paul Manafort. August 16, they opened another investigation
into Mike Flynn. Becky shrugs her
shoulders, “So what?”
Theo takes back his phone and
pulls up another screen shot. He
explains, “Remember, the FBI claims they didn’t get the dossier until September
19. The problem is, the only allegation
that Trump colluded with the Russians is the Steele dossier.
“That’s not true.”
“What other evidence or
allegation was there?”
Becky thinks about it then
replies, “I don’t really know. I haven’t
really followed this too closely but I heard there were others.”
“Yea, from Comey and Brennan;
both admitted liars and completely unreliable.”
“Says you.”
“You think they’re credible?”
“Well, I’m not sure about that
but, I mean, I don’t know.”
“Why was an operation open in
August 10, if they hadn’t seen the dossier till a month later?”
“I told you, I don’t know but
I’m sure there’s something.”
“What do you think of this
then? This is from the dossier.” As he
hands her his phone
Becky takes the phone and it
reveals an August 10 memo in which Kremlin
engaged with STEIN, PAGE (and on August 16 one on Michael Flynn) as they funded
their recent visit to Moscow.”
“I’ll give you it’s a little too
coincidental that the same date of this memo in the dossier, is the same date
they opened the investigation. Maybe,
wherever Steele got it from, the FBI did too.”
“You’re on the right track but
the wrong horse. You admit that it’s too
coincidental but why wouldn’t the FBI reveal how they came to open this
investigation?”
“The FBI is notorious for not
revealing sources and methods.”
“The dossier has been proven to
be a hoax though? The FBI, three years
later, has never verified anything in it; including that August 10 memo. If they got it from somewhere else, wouldn’t
it be marked verified in their spreadsheet?”
“Maybe, I don’t know, I guess
it’s possible.”
“That’s not even the reason I
showed you that.”
“Then what is?”
Do you notice anything about the
dossier and the names?”
“No”
“All the names are in caps
except Flynn’s. Why do you think that
is?”
Becky starts scrolling through
the dossier to see if that’s consistent in other sections. With a cursory glance, she confirms that it
is as the caps does stand out. “That is
a little weird.”
“May I suggest that they threw
it in at the last second because the FBI was asking Steele for some dirt on
Flynn so they could prosecute him?
That’s why it’s not in the same format; it was just thrown in at the
last second.”
“Oh come on! I get in trouble all the time for format and
grammar issues in my essays.”
“This is an official
intelligence document. Details are
crucial because if you act on bad intelligence, bad things happen.”
“Or if you dismiss good
intelligence.”
“Correct so attention to detail
is crucial and Steele was MI6.”
“The English are more sticklers
for the language than we are.”
“Seems like you’re coming to my
side.”
“But, the IG report says that
Flynn’s investigation wasn’t open till August 16. If he was a throw in at the last minute,
wouldn’t they open the investigation into Flynn on August 10 too?”
“Unless Papadopoulos and Page
were just distractions from the real target; Flynn.”
“Far-fetched.”
“Or, I’m right and that the memo
was written on August 10 but after it was written, Steele had to throw in the
Flynn stuff so that may or may not have been August 10 but six days later.”
“Less far-fetched but still
flimsy. I mean this would be
unprecedented. What are we even talking
about?”
“It’s common enough that there
is a name for it. It’s called a ‘plug
and play’ operation.”
“Explain”
“You have an outline of a
fabricated claim and you just plug in the names you want and then play your
hand with the DOJ.”
“If that’s true, it’s pretty
scary.”
“What’s even scarier is that it
was a two way street between Steele and the FBI. That’s what I was getting at earlier when I
said right track, wrong horse.”
“I still don’t know what that
means. I thought that was just an
outdated reference.”
“The FBI and Steele did get the
August 10 information from the same place; the place is the FBI. Steele provided his template, they told him
to plug in Flynn’s name, he revised it to include Flynn and gave it back to
them. Same information from the same
sources; them.”
“I just can’t believe that
something like that would happen in the United States.”
“Unfortunately, it did.”
“So, they tell Steele what to
write and then he writes it and sends it back.”
“He adds some color to it but if
he adds something that the FBI or DOJ knows is false, they tell him to correct
it.”
“Now, I know why people leave
you. This is a bar. Somewhere people go to just relax, have a
couple drinks and engage in superficial conversations. This is way too deep for a bar.”
“It’s okay if you walk
away. I need to get going anyway; I
actually do have work tomorrow.”
Theo and Becky say goodbye and
Theo closes his tab and heads for the train.
While on the train, a couple around Theo’s age is discussing
politics. The guy offers, “I have a feeling
that Rome is very important in this case but nobody is talking about it.”
The woman snaps back, “What are
you talking about? Everything is England
and Russia. Steele is former MI6, Halper
worked at Cambridge; everything seems to happen in England.”
Theo smiles and realized he
can’t help himself. He exclaims, “That’s
not entirely accurate. Think about how
the FBI claims that Crossfire Hurricane started.”
The woman mulls this over and
shakes her head side to side, “Alright, fine Australia too because Downer
claims Papadopoulos told him that the Russians had dirt on Hillary but
Papadopoulos heard that in London with Mifsud.”
“And where was Mifsud from?”
“Malta”
“Where did he teach?”
“He was in England a lot. I think he taught at Cambridge….wait no, that
was Trubnikov. Oh yea, the Linq campus.”
“Which is where?”
Her eyes got wide and the guys
answered for her, “Rome”
Theo grinned and continued,
“That’s why the main Italian newspaper, La
Republicca is the one that exposed Mifsud as not being a Russian agent but
tied to friendly governments like England and Italy. Do you want to know what else happened in
Rome?”
The guy beamed, “Do tell.” As
the woman gave him a dirty look.
“An FBI agent named Gaeda gave
classified information to Steele.”
The woman retorted, “You mean,
Steele gave the Russia information to Gaeda.”
“No, that’s not what I
mean. It does make you wonder though
what happened to Steele being the one with highly guarded secrets and giving
them to the FBI. Why would the FBI give
Steele classified information?”
“Maybe, they were just
corroborating and exchanging notes.”
“Bill Barr is having trouble
interviewing Jim Comey because he has to show him classified documents but
Comey won’t accept the reinstating of his security clearance. We know Comey has seen these documents
because he had clearance when they were produced but now that he doesn’t, we
can’t show it to him. If the rules are
that strict, you really think the FBI can show them to a foreigner to compare
notes?”
“Steele was an FBI informant.”
“Exactly and it’s supposed to be
a one way street. You don’t get
information from the informant and then tell him where the holes are in his
story. You just tell him his information
is wrong and you question him as a source.
If he does it enough, you label him as an unreliable source. You don’t tell him that this, this and that
is wrong and have him correct it and give it back to you. In that case, it’s you giving information to
him.”
“First of all, how do you even
know that Gaeda gave Steele classified information?”
Theo pulls up IG Horrowitz
report and shows the woman the footnote in which it says that Case Agent 2 did
(give classified information to Steele).
The woman rejoins, “Yea but if you keep reading, it says why.”
“You really think that just
because his supervisor was present and things were so loose that he may have
forgotten are good excuses?”
“Well no, but it is an
explanation.”
“This isn’t even the only time
it happened.”
“When else did it?”
“10 days before they got the
FISA on Carter Page, Steel e met with Kathleen Kavalec of the state
department. The meeting happened on
October 11, 2016.”
“Are you showing off that you
know the date?”
“No, I want you to remember that
date because it’s important. October 11,
2016.”
“Alright”
Theo shows her Kavalec’s two
pages of hand written notes. He points
out, “See how it says that Cohen went to Prague to pay off the Russians for the
information about Hillalry?”
“Yes, and we found out later
that Steele was wrong about that because Cohen had never even been to Prague
much less met with Russians to pay them off.”
“Very good. If you look at the next shot, it’s Kavalec’s
typed notes. You can see it talks about
the travel logs of Russians that he met with and mentions that there’s no
Russian consulate in Miami so Steele’s claim that the Russians laundered money
through there doesn’t make any sense.”
“Fine, Kavalec knew that Steele
was full of shit.”
“Remember, 10 days later they
opened a FISA anyway.”
“They clearly didn’t listen to
Kavelec.”
“Or maybe they did” Theo takes
back the phone and pulls up the dossier and announces, “Check the date of this
memo from the dossier. Remember the
dossier is just a bunch of memos.”
“October 19, 2016.”
“When did we say the meeting
with Kavelec was?”
“October 11.”
“So this is eight days after the
Kavalec meeting.”
“Yes, I know how numbers work.”
“Now read it.”
The memo is about Cohen meeting
with the Russians to pay them off but it mentions that they are unsure of the
exact date and location of the meeting between Cohen and the PA officials. The guy is reading it as well and
articulates, “Wait, he all of a sudden doesn’t know it’s in Prague anymore?”
“He could have just forgotten
the information or Kavalec told him that this was wrong so he had to write
another memo and knew not to include Cohen and Prague anymore.”
“But he did since that got
leaked to the media.”
“The media didn’t get the final
copy that Kavalec had corrected.
Remember, that the David Corn of Mother Jones leak was in July, this is
October.”
“David Corn got a rough draft.”
“Yes”
The woman pronounced, “So, wait,
Steele’s sources weren’t just Surkov and Trubnikov like he told Kavelec, but it
was the US State Department and the FBI too.
They were all in cahoots to try to make the best story possible.”
“And it still failed.”
There
was a stunned silence among the couple and the guy broke it, “Maybe some of the
dossier wasn’t written by Steele. Maybe
this part wasn’t and that’s why the information isn’t coordinated.”
“That would be problematic too
right? Why wouldn’t the real author want
credit for it? Why put Steele’s name on
it?”
“Because the FBI trusted him.”
“Yea, we call that ‘information
laundering.’ I do think that happened
since the dossier is awfully similar to an April 19, 2007 article in the Wall
Street Journal by the guy who owns Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson, whom Hillary paid
through the law firm Perkins Coie to dig up oppositional research on Donald
Trump. The article is called ‘How
Lobbyists help ex-soviets woo Washington.’ It was co-authored by Mary Jacoby,
who is now Glenn Simpson’s wife. Others
claim that Halper wrote some of the dossier too.”
“I may not be wrong then.”
“Even if you’re right, you got
to think that the three of them collaborated on what to put in it. If Steele knew the meeting happened in Prague
then Simpson or Halper or whoever wrote that memo would’ve asked the other two
if they knew where it happened.”
“Yea, shit, this is bad.”
“I agree.”
The train went back to the
awkward silence and Theo got off at his stop.
He went home and rested after a very illuminating day.
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