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Thread: When did Trump-Russia probe begin? Investigators focus on mystery months

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    Default When did Trump-Russia probe begin? Investigators focus on mystery months

    Most of the key events of the Trump-Russia investigation — the Carter Page wiretap, the wiretap of Michael Flynn's conversations, the presentation of Trump dossier allegations to the president-elect — took place after the formal start of the FBI counterintelligence investigation.

    But now comes word of the FBI informant, described in various accounts as a retired American professor living in England. The Washington Post reported that, "The professor's interactions with Trump advisers began a few weeks before the opening of the investigation, when Page met the professor at the British symposium."

    A few weeks before the opening of the investigation — those are the words that have raised eyebrows among Hill investigators. If it was before the investigation, then what was an FBI informant doing gathering undercover information when there was not yet an investigation?

    The question has pointed investigators back to the issue of when the probe began — not when a piece of paper was formally signed but when the FBI, and perhaps other U.S. intelligence agencies, began investigating the Trump campaign.

    And that has taken them back to March 21, 2016, when candidate Donald Trump met with the editorial board of the Washington Post.

    At the time of that meeting, Trump had been under criticism for not having the sort of lists of distinguished advisers that most top-level campaigns routinely assemble. That was particularly true in the area of foreign policy. A frustrated Trump ordered his team to compile a list of foreign-affairs advisers.

    Trump was preparing to announce his advisory board when he met with the Post. The paper's publisher asked Trump if he would reveal the names of his new team.
    "Well, I hadn't thought of doing it, but if you want I can give you some of the names," Trump said. He then read a brief list, among them Page and Papadopoulos.

    Trump's announcement did not go unnoticed at the FBI and Justice Department. The bureau knew Page from a previous episode in which Russian agents had tried, unsuccessfully, to recruit him. It's not clear what the FBI knew about the others. But then-Director James Comey and number-two Andrew McCabe personally briefed Attorney General Loretta Lynch on the list of newly-named Trump foreign policy advisers, including Page, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

    Lynch told the House Intelligence Committee that she, Comey, and McCabe discussed whether to provide a "defensive briefing" to the Trump campaign. That would entail having an FBI official meet with a senior campaign official "to alert them to the fact that … there may be efforts to compromise someone with their campaign," Lynch said.

    It didn't happen, even though it was discussed again when Comey briefed the National Security Council principals committee about Page in the "late spring" of 2016, according to Lynch's testimony. (The principals committee includes some of the highest-ranking officials in the government, including the secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense, and Homeland Security, the attorney general, the head of the CIA, the White House chief of staff, U.N. ambassador, and more.)

    So the nation's top political appointees, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies were watching Trump campaign figures in the spring and early summer of 2016.

    In early July, Trump dossier author Christopher Steele, the former British spy, approached the FBI with the first installment of the dossier. (It was the part that alleged Trump took part in a kinky sex scene with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel in 2013.) Also in early July — just a few days later — Page made a much-watched trip to deliver a speech in Moscow. Also in July, FBI officials say they learned about Papadopoulos' meeting a few months earlier with a Russian-connected professor. And still in July, hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee were released.

    Somewhere around the time all that was happening, according to the latest reporting, the FBI informant began his work.

    And that was all before what is called the formal beginning of the Trump-Russia investigation. It is in those mystery months — late March, April, May, June, and early July of 2016 — with the presidential campaign going at full force, that the Obama administration's surveillance of the Republican candidate geared up.

    Most reporting has focused on the July 31, 2016, creation of a document formally marking the beginning of the FBI counterintelligence probe targeting the Trump campaign. The document, known as the electronic communication, or EC, is said to have focused on the case of George Papadopoulos, the peripheral Trump adviser who has pleaded guilty to lying to special counsel Robert Mueller about his contacts with people connected to Russia.
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...mystery-months

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    DEMOCRATS don't seem to be interested. I think I know why.

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    Mueller, the democrats, the left wing media machine etal have got a big problem with even addressing this issue. It only proves that the wing-nut conspiracy to go after Trump was and is a fabricated whine fest on their part. But keeping in mind they are the minority now, who cares, let them waddle one and all
    This just In::: Trump indicted for living in liberals heads and not paying RENT

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    Trump Is Coming back to a White House Near you

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    Well first off you know where York is going when he simply passes over Papadopoulos as a "peripheral advisor," "peripheral advisors" don't sit at select campaign meetings sitting next to the VP choice nor get congratulatory introductions by the nominee himself

    The Trump advisors who the informant interviewed were on the radar long before July, 2016, they were under review before the FBI even asked the informant to get involved;

    https://www.factcheck.org/2017/06/ti...investigation/

    York employing the "before opening of the investigation" quote as the basis to raise questions, which he cherrypicks without context, is erroneous

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    Quote Originally Posted by archives View Post
    Well first off you know where York is going when he simply passes over Papadopoulos as a "peripheral advisor," "peripheral advisors" don't sit at select campaign meetings sitting next to the VP choice nor get congratulatory introductions by the nominee himself

    The Trump advisors who the informant interviewed were on the radar long before July, 2016, they were under review before the FBI even asked the informant to get involved;

    https://www.factcheck.org/2017/06/ti...investigation/

    York employing the "before opening of the investigation" quote as the basis to raise questions, which he cherrypicks without context, is erroneous
    But the Obama spy/informant couldn’t get Papadopoulos to reiterate what he *allegedly* told the Clinton Foundation donor dude/spy.

    Maybe Papadopoulos wasn’t drunk enough lol.
    Coup has started. First of many steps. Impeachment will follow ultimately~WB attorney Mark Zaid, January 2017

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    Quote Originally Posted by Darth Omar View Post
    But the Obama spy/informant couldn’t get Papadopoulos to reiterate what he *allegedly* told the Clinton Foundation donor dude/spy.

    Maybe Papadopoulos wasn’t drunk enough lol.
    Oh, now we got the Clintons involved, what a surprise, now did Rush, Sean, or some other fat guy on the radio tell you that?

    (How come I got a feeling I am going to now get an Info Wars or Gateway source as proof?)

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    Quote Originally Posted by archives View Post
    Well first off you know where York is going when he simply passes over Papadopoulos as a "peripheral advisor," "peripheral advisors" don't sit at select campaign meetings sitting next to the VP choice nor get congratulatory introductions by the nominee himself

    The Trump advisors who the informant interviewed were on the radar long before July, 2016, they were under review before the FBI even asked the informant to get involved;

    https://www.factcheck.org/2017/06/ti...investigation/

    York employing the "before opening of the investigation" quote as the basis to raise questions, which he cherrypicks without context, is erroneous
    he's peripheral. Papa never did amything but sit in one that 1 meeting.

    But the point:

    The professor's interactions (informant) with Trump advisers began a few weeks before the opening of the investigation, (late July)when Page met the professor at the British symposium."

    "A few weeks before the opening of the investigation" — those are the words that have raised eyebrows among Hill investigators. If it was before the investigation, then what was an FBI informant doing gathering undercover information when there was not yet an investigation?
    why is an informant dealing with Papa, unless there was already an investigation?
    In which case the July date when the FBI says it started was false?

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    Quote Originally Posted by noise View Post
    he's peripheral. Papa never did amything but sit in one that 1 meeting.

    But the point:



    why is an informant dealing with Papa, unless there was already an investigation?
    In which case the July date when the FBI says it started was false?

    It started when when Australia reported ties between the trump campaign and Russia. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/16/trum...r-in-2016.html

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    Quote Originally Posted by archives View Post
    Oh, now we got the Clintons involved, what a surprise, now did Rush, Sean, or some other fat guy on the radio tell you that?

    (How come I got a feeling I am going to now get an Info Wars or Gateway source as proof?)
    He was an Australian diplomat who guided 25 million from the Australian government to the Clinton Foundation. That was before he ‘happened to run into’ Papadopoulos.

    https://www.google.com/amp/thehill.c...clintons%3famp

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    Coup has started. First of many steps. Impeachment will follow ultimately~WB attorney Mark Zaid, January 2017

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    13 Russian nationals, three Russian companies, one California man, and one London-based lawyer.

    Five of these people have already pleaded guilty — the latest being former Trump campaign staffer
    Rick Gates, who signed a plea deal and committed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation.

    Name ONE (1) Republican Lead Special Counsel in American History that has performed better.


    Have a nice day ...
    ONE-N-DONE, YOU GOT PLAYED; Time To Play-On
    Remember ... ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES ... So STFU Bitch

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    Quote Originally Posted by Legion View Post
    DEMOCRATS don't seem to be interested. I think I know why.
    Oh they are interested. They are very scared.

    I think Trump is playing this perfectly. Trump knows EXACTLY what the Obama administration did and when they did it. Trump knows how to play reality TV like no other. He is waiting to spring the trap for massive effect leading into the midterms. No sense blowing his wad right now to give the public time to forget about it.


    Nope. He is biding his time. The left doesn't know it (but they will) but time is on Trump's side.

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    Oops - Michael Cohen's Business Partner pleads guilty to tax evasion & agrees to cooperate as a witness



    A significant business partner of Michael Cohen, Evgeny A. Freidman (a Russian immigrant known as the Taxi King), has quietly agreed to cooperate with the government as a potential witness, NYT reports.


    A significant business partner of Michael D. Cohen, President Trump’s personal lawyer, has quietly agreed to cooperate with the government as a potential witness, a development that could be used as leverage to pressure Mr. Cohen to work with the special counsel examining Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

    Under the agreement, the partner, Evgeny A. Freidman, a Russian immigrant who is known as the Taxi King, will avoid jail time, and will assist government prosecutors in state or federal investigations, according to a person briefed on the matter.

    Mr. Cohen’s conduct was initially examined by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating the 2016 election that led to Mr. Trump’s victory, and then referred to the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan. Last month, federal agents carried out search warrants at Mr. Cohen’s home, his office and a hotel room where he was staying, seeking documents related to his business associates and accountants.

    Mr. Trump’s lawyers have been resigned to the strong possibility that the investigation of Mr. Cohen’s businesses could lead him


    @ThePlumLineGS
    "Trump’s lawyers have been resigned to the strong possibility that the investigation of Cohen’s businesses could lead him to cooperate with federal prosecutors. That likelihood could become greater with a business partner of Cohen’s cooperating with law enforcement."


    A business partner of President Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

    The partner, the large New York City taxi fleet operator Evgeny Friedman, pleaded guilty Tuesday to evading taxes in court in Albany Court.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/22/mich...-deal-nyt.html

    http://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-t...se-fall-2017-8


    ****UPDATE****
    When TPM interviewed Friedman last year he told @allegrakirkland that he and Michael Cohen "talk daily sometimes."


    https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckra...rnment-witness
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bourbon View Post
    13 Russian nationals, three Russian companies, one California man, and one London-based lawyer.

    Five of these people have already pleaded guilty — the latest being former Trump campaign staffer
    Rick Gates, who signed a plea deal and committed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation.

    Name ONE (1) Republican Lead Special Counsel in American History that has performed better.


    Have a nice day ...

    Pleaded guilty to what? Details matter. Guilty of unpaid parking tickets?

    Guilty of COLLUSION with the Trump administration? Has Mueller gotten anyone to plead guilty to anything related to his original mandate? Allow me to help you. The answer is NO


    Have a nice day................

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    Quote Originally Posted by katzgar View Post
    It started when when Australia reported ties between the trump campaign and Russia. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/16/trum...r-in-2016.html
    that was summer of 2016 -after the official start of the investigation.

    again:

    If the investigation started in July,yet the informant was in contact and meeting Papa in March...?
    informants are not sent in unless there is already an investigation

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    Quote Originally Posted by noise View Post
    So the nation's top political appointees, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies were watching Trump campaign figures in the spring and early summer of 2016.

    GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious “interactions” between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents, a source close to UK intelligence said. This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added.

    Over the next six months, until summer 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trump’s inner circle and Russians, sources said.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...m-links-russia

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