Declassifying a secretly recorded transcript of former Trump campaign aid George Papadopoulos, a secret government source confirmed that Papadopoulos had no contact with Russia as alleged by the FBI. Former FBI Director James Comey opened up Crossfire Hurricane, a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign built off of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s paid opposition research AKA the “Steele Dossier” claiming 73-year-old President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. Comey denied under oath that he exclusively used the Steele Dossier to make his case to wiretap the Trump campaign to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] Court. Former FISA Court Chief Judge Rosemary Collyer admonished the FBI for giving her misleading, non-factual information to obtain warrants from the FISA Court to wiretap Papadopoulos.
Now a recently declassified transcript of Papadopoulos’ call with an FBI informant proves there was nothing substantive about the FBI’s claims that Papadopoulos colluded with Russia. Papadopoulos said on the secretly recorded transcript, he made “a lot of cool [connections] and I’m going to see what’s going to happen after the election,” boasting, like most junior aids, about his vast contacts. “Papadopoulos did not say much about Russia during the first conversation with Source 3, other that to mention a “friend Sergey . . . [who] lives in . . Brooklyn,” and invited Source 3 to travel with Papadopoulos to Russia over the summertime,” said Department of Justice [DOJ] Inspector General Michael Horowitz in his Dec. 9, 2019 report to Congress. FBI collected its FISA-approved secret recording Oct. 23, 2016 only three weeks before the Nov. 4 presidential election, showing the FBI was busy investigating Trump
In Horowitz’s same Dec. 9 report to Congress, footnotes reveal that contents of the Steele Dossier, used to get warrants from the FISA Court, may have been Russian disinformation, alleging that the Trump campaign had Russian contacts. Steele’s allegations were never verified, in fact recently were part of a defamation suit by Russian bankers accused by Steele of colluding with the Kremlin. In an unsealed deposition, Steele admitted that he had no background information on charges he made in his dossier supplied to Glen Simpson at FusionGPS, the opposition research paid by Hillary and the Democratic National Committee. Whatever Papadopoulos said in any conversation with FBI informants, it’s clear he was never charged with anything because he never did anything wrong. Comey and his FBI co-conspirators had no probable cause for wiretapping Papadopoulos other than the Steele Dossier.
Showing the way FBI tried to cover its tracks, it responded after finding that there was no basis to wiretapping Papadopoulos. “The Crossfire Hurricane team’s assessment was the Papadopoulos denial was a rehearsed response, and that he did not view the information as particularly germane to the investigation of Carter Page.” When the FBI had nothing after wiretapping Papadopoulos, they continued to justify it. His denial was “rehearsed” tells the FBI’s excuse for violating Papadopoulos’ civil rights. In Comey’s FBI, no one had civil rights if the FBI decided, for whatever reason, to investigate, even without probable cause. Atty. Gen. William Barr and his Chief Investigator into FBI misconduct 70-year-old U.S. Atty. John Durahm (R-Conn.) are working with a grand jury to indict several past FBI and CIA officials over gross misconduct, secretly investigating the 2016 Trump campaign.
More evidence shows that Comey and his FBI upper management opened Crossfire Hurricane in 2016 without proper “predicate” or probable cause. Comey insisted he had proper “predicate” with the Steele Dossier, that was worthless opposition research designed for one thing: To discredit Trump’s campaign. When you consider that the late Sen. John McCain brought he Steele Dossier to Comey, it showed that there was an effort underway with certain Republicans in Congress and members of the FBI to sabotage Trump’s presidential campaign. Durham hopefully can shed some light on whether FBI Crossfire Hurricane was a rogue operation or authorized by former Atty. Gen Loretta Lynch, former National Security adviser Susan Rice, going up the chain to former President Barack Obama. It’s difficult to imagine this all happened under without Obama’s knowledge.
Declassifed details of the secret transcript of Papadopoulos recording with an FBI source prove that he had nothing to offer the FBI in its probe of Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential campaign. DOJ Inspector General Horowitz was not looking at FBI misconduct, giving the department the benefit of the doubt. Horowitz concluded Dec. 9 that the FBI’s covert probe into Papadopoulos, Carter Page, former National Security Adviser Gen. Michael Flynn and former Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort met the “low threshold” by the DOJ and FBI. Barr and Durham disagree with Horowitz that the FBI met any threshold since they relied on the discredited Steele Dossier, where Steele himself admitted he erased all underlying data to “protect his sources.” Barr and Durham said, “we do not agree with some of the Report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FB case was opened.”
