by John Solomon
From its earliest moments, the FBI’s Russia collusion probe was always fraught with warning signs.
Agents were told Christopher Steele provided faulty information, had likely been compromised by Russian intel disinformation, wanted to defeat Donald Trump, had leaked to the media and was being paid by Hillary Clinton, who herself might be carrying out an epic dirty political trick to vilify Trump with false information to distract from her own scandals.
Those intelligence reports alone should have given agents pause. The fact that Steele had been terminated by the FBI as an informant for leaking also should have weighed heavily.
File
But if ever there were red lights screaming for the FBI to end the counterintelligence probe, they were flashing during a harrowing 20-day window in January 2017 as Barack Obama was leaving office and Trump was coming in.
Between Jan. 4, 2017 and Jan. 24, 2017, nearly every major assumption of the FBI’s Russia collusion theory was gutted, according to recently declassified evidence reviewed by Just the News.
Months of investigating Trump adviser Mike Flynn had turned up “no derogatory information,” and agents recommended shutting down that part of the inquiry after concluding Flynn wasn’t aiding Moscow. Two separate informant recordings of Trump adviser Carter Page — the target of an ongoing FISA warrant — produced stunning evidence of innocence.
U.S. intelligence had concluded a key allegation in the Steele dossier was Russian disinformation. And Steele’s primary sub-source — whom the FBI assessed was likely tied to Russian intelligence — discounted much of the information attributed to him in the dossier. Even Director James Comey was telling colleagues there wasn’t much corroborated in the dossier.
File
AG Letter to Chairman Graham 9.24.2020.pdf
And yet somehow, some way, the FBI accelerated the investigation even though overwhelming evidence showed — as lead investigative agent Peter Strzok would later text his colleague — there was “no big there, there.”
“The evidence yelled stop, and we just hit the go button anyways,” a senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the probe told Just the News.
Responsibility for finding out why — and whether any of those decisions were criminal — currently resides with Special Counsel John Durham.
Here is a timeline of evidence available to Durham that Just the News has gleaned from more than 10,000 pages of declassified memos, reports and documents we have reviewed since last summer:
Jan. 4, 2017
FBI agents who investigated Flynn’s ties to Russia for months conclude there is no evidence he is a Russian agent and his case should be closed. “The absence of any derogatory information or lead information from these logical sources reduce the number of investigative avenues and techniques to pursue. … The FBI is closing this investigation,” the lead agent wrote in his closing memo. FBI leadership overruled the agent and kept the Flynn probe open, eventually luring him into an interview where they alleged he lied.
Jan. 5, 2017
Comey and other intelligence officials brief President Obama on the status of the Russia probe. FBI notes from contacts with the White House during that time frame suggest Obama asked the FBI to put “the right people” on the Trump case and that Vice Presidemt Joe Biden may have suggested agents use the effectively obsolete Logan Act to investigate Flynn.
Jan. 6, 2017
Obama intelligence community agencies release report concluding that Russia attempted to meddle in the 2016 election in an effort to aid Donald Trump becoming president. Subsequent evidence would emerge calling into question that conclusion, including that Russian intelligence had been spreading false dirt trying to hurt Trump’s reputation during and after the election.
Jan. 9, 2017
Carter Page is recorded by FBI confidential informant Stefan Halper reacting to the BuzzFeed article, saying the information about him in the Steele dossier is “complete lies” and the dossier contains “false evidence against him.” Page’s protestations of innocence are never disclosed to the FISA court. Justice Department officials acknowledged around this time they also learned about a second intercept by Halper from October 2016 in which Page made significant statements of innocence that also were not disclosed to the judges, according to the DOJ inspector general report.
Jan. 10, 2017
Steele dossier is leaked to the American public…
Continue Reading