Ball of Collusion

by Andrew C. McCarthy

  2. Russia is the EU’s fourth largest trading partner, while the EU is Russia’s largest. European Commission, Russia report: Trade picture (data as of April 17, 2019); see, e.g., Andrew E. Kramer, “French Leader Urges End to Sanctions Against Russia Over Ukraine” (New York Times, Jan. 5, 2015); Jeanne Whalen, “Europe urges Congress to support lifting U.S. sanctions on Russian firm controlled by Vladimir Putin ally” (the EU complains that sanctions on aluminum oligarch Deripaska harm factories in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and the U.K.).

  3. Gingrich obviously was not saying that Estonia (which is about 85 miles from St. Petersburg) was part of Russia. His point was that the country has a robust Russian minority population, and thus that Russia would not have to invade but—as it has done in Georgia and Ukraine—mainly rely on insurrection by ethnic Russian Estonians. His question was whether Americans would feel obliged to chance war with nuclear-armed Russia if the latter orchestrated an uprising in a country with a significant Russian population, situated on Russia’s doorstep. See Andrew Stuttaford, “Estonia, Newt Gingrich and Strategery” (National Review, July 23, 2016). See also, Miriam Elder, “Estonia’s President Wants Some of His Fellow Leaders to End ‘Naïveté’ Toward Russia” (BuzzFeed, Sept. 20, 2016); Kristin Salaky, “Estonian Prez Appears to Push Back on Trump’s NATO Comments” (Talking Points Memo, July 21, 2016 (collecting Ilves tweets); George Neumayr, “John Brennan and Baltic Spies Teamed Up to Defeat Trump” (American Spectator, March 28, 2017).

  4. Stanford University, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, pages on Michael A. McFaul and Toomas Hendrik Ilves; Neumayr, “John Brennan and Baltic Spies Teamed Up to Defeat Trump,” supra.

  5. Paul Wood, “Trump ‘compromising’ claims: How and why did we get here” (BBC News, Jan. 12, 2017); Luke Harding, “British spies were first to spot Trump team’s links with Russia—Exclusive: GCHQ is said to have alerted US agencies after becoming aware of contacts in 2015” (The Guardian, April 13, 2017); see also Peter Stone and Greg Gordon, “FBI, 5 other agencies probe possible covert Kremlin aid to Trump” (McClatchy, Jan. 18, 2017) (six U.S. government agencies investigating “whether money from the Kremlin covertly aided President-elect Donald Trump”).

  6. John O. Brennan, House Intelligence Committee Testimony (hearing on “Russian Active Measures during the 2016 Election Campaign), May 23, 2017, p. 17.

  7. Michael S. Schmidt, Matthew Rosenberg, Adam Goldman, and Matt Apuzzo, “Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates” (New York Times, Jan. 19, 2017) (“The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit.… One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House.”); see also Stone and Gordon, “FBI, 5 other agencies probe possible covert Kremlin aid to Trump,” supra.

  8. Edward William Priestap, Testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, June 5, 2018, pp. 76-80; Eric Felten, “FBI Man’s Testimony Points to Wrongdoing Well Beyond Spying” (Real Clear Investigations, April 12, 2019).

  9. John O. Brennan, Meet the Press interview by Chuck Todd (NBC News, Feb. 4, 2018); Jeff Carlson, “John Brennan’s Role in the FBI’s Trump–Russia Investigation” (Epoch Times, April 9, 2018).

  10. “FBI Records Show Dossier Author Deemed ‘Not Suitable For Use’ as Source, Show Several FBI Payments in 2016” (Judicial Watch, Aug. 3, 2018) (collecting documents released in FOIA litigation, Judicial Watch v. U.S. Dept. of Justice, No. 17 cv 916.

  11. Carlson, “John Brennan’s Role in the FBI’s Trump–Russia Investigation,” supra. Gordon Rayner, “GCHQ boss Robert Hannigan quits for ‘personal reasons’ after just two years” (Telegraph, Jan. 23, 2017).

  12. The Justice Department and the FBI stiff-armed congressional investigators through the Trump administration’s first two years. Though the president groused about this, he seems to have been reluctant to issue a firm order that they cooperate, at least in part out of fear that doing so would be portrayed as obstruction of the Mueller probe. After the Mueller report was issued, we learned that newly appointed Attorney General Bill Barr has assigned a Justice Department prosecutor, John Durham (the U.S. attorney for Connecticut), to probe the investigative decisions made in connection with the 2016 campaign. The president also delegated the attorney general to exercise declassification authority to ensure that all relevant information is made available to Durham’s investigation. See Andrew C. McCarthy, “Bill Barr’s Declassification Kerfuffle” (National Review, May 28, 2019).

  13. Senators Charles E. Grassley and Lindsey O. Graham letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe (June 27, 2017), citing Julian Borger, “John McCain Passes Dossier Alleging Secret Trump–Russia Contacts to FBI” (The Guardian, Jan 11, 2017), and Wood, “Trump ‘compromising’ claims: How and why did we get here?”, supra.

  14. Louise Mensch, “EXCLUSIVE: FBI ‘Granted FISA Warrant’ Covering Trump Camp’s Ties to Russia” (Heat Street, Nov. 8, 2016); Erick Lichtblau and Steven Lee Myers, “Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia” (New York Times, Oct. 31, 2016).

  15. Webster Stone, “Moscow’s Still Holding” (New York Times, Sept. 18, 1988) (detailing that the so-called hotline between Washington and Moscow was not actually a telephone; begun in 1963, it was a 24-hour electronic link between the Pentagon and Communist Party headquarters).

  16. Franklin Foer, “Was a Trump Server Communicating with Russia?” (Slate, Oct. 31, 2016).

  17. Rowan Scarborough, “Simpson pushed Justice Department to investigate debunked Trump-Alfa bank theory” (Washington Times, Sept. 9, 2018).

  18. Wood, “Trump ‘compromising’ claims: How and why did we get here?”, supra; Stone and Gordon, “FBI, 5 other agencies probe possible covert Kremlin aid to Trump,” supra; cf. Title 50, U.S. Code, Sections 1861 (access to certain business records for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations) and 3162 (requests by authorized investigative agencies for financial records necessary to the conduct of counterintelligence and other investigations).

  19. Everett Rosenfeld, “Hillary Clinton will campaign in Arizona—a normally red state” (CNBC, Oct. 28, 2016).

  20. Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Dept. of Justice, “A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election” (June 2018) pp. 333-90; Devlin Barrett, “FBI in Internal Feud Over Hillary Clinton Probe” (Wall Street Journal, Oct. 30, 2016).

  21. Liz Spayd, “The Public Editor: Trump, Russia, and the News Story That Wasn’t” (New York Times, Jan. 20, 2017).

  22. See, e.g., Sam Roberts, “A Spy Confesses, and Still Some Weep for the Rosenbergs” (New York Times, Sept. 20, 2008).

  23. Franklin Foer, “Suspended Animation in the Age of Trump—Before Donald Trump was elected, I reported on strange activity liking a Trump-campaign computer server to Moscow. A new report shows how much has changed since 2016—and how many questions still remain” (Atlantic, Oct. 8, 2018); Dexter Filkins, “Was There a Connection Between a Russian Bank and the Trump Campaign?” (New Yorker, Oct. 15, 2018).

  24. Glenn Simpson Testimony before Senate Intelligence Committee, pp. 304-05 (Aug. 22, 2017).

  25. Scarborough, “Simpson pushed Justice Department to investigate debunked Trump-Alfa bank theory,” supra.

  CHAPTER 9

  1. Nick Hopkins and Luke Harding, “Donald Trump dossier: intelligence sources vouch for author’s credibility—Ex-MI6 officer Christopher Steele, named as writer of Donald Trump memo, is ‘highly regarded professional’” (The Guardian, Jan. 12, 2017); Gordon Rayner, “Who is Christopher Steele, author of the explosive Trump–Russia dossier?” (Reuters, Jan. 13, 2017) (noting that Steele was case officer for murdered Russian defector Alexander Litvenenko); Lee Smith, “Did Glenn Simpson Lie to Congress? And could Christopher Steele, t
he British spy who spent his life as a Cold Warrior, have become an unwitting Kremlin pawn?” (Tablet, Jan. 12, 2018); Esther Addley and Luke Harding, “Litvinenko probably murdered on personal orders of Putin” (The Guardian, Jan. 21, 2016).

  2. Andrew C. McCarthy, “Anatomy of a Farce” (National Review, Jan. 13, 2018); McCarthy, “The Curious Case of Natalia Veselnitskaya” (National Review, July 19, 2017); McCarthy, “Is Collusion with Russia Over?” (National Review, Feb. 24, 2018); John Solomon, “Russian Oligarch, Justice Department and a clear case of collusion” (The Hill, Aug. 28, 2018).

  3. Eric Felten, “Was Christopher Steele disseminating Russian disinformation to the State Department?” (Weekly Standard, Sept. 14, 2018).

  4. Jerry Dunleavy, “Christopher Steele admitted using posts by ‘random individuals’ on CNN website to back up Trump Dossier” (Washington Examiner, March 15, 2019).

  5. Ashe Schow, “Christopher Steele’s Former MI6 Boss Slams Dossier as ‘Overrated’” (Daily Wire, March 18, 2019).

  6. McCarthy, “Anatomy of a Farce,” supra.

  7. Lee Smith, “Did President Obama Read the ‘Steele Dossier’ in the White House Last August?” (Tablet, Dec. 20, 2017).

  8. John Solomon, “FBI’s Steele story falls apart: False intel and media contacts were flagged before FISA” (The Hill, May 9, 2019).

  9. Andrew C. McCarthy, “Politicizing Steele’s Raw, Unverified ‘Intelligence’” (National Review, Jan. 9, 2018).

  10. Des Bieler, “The British spy behind the Trump dossier helped the FBI bust FIFA” (Washington Post, Jan. 13, 2017).

  11. Glenn Simpson Testimony before Senate Intelligence Committee, pp. 58-63 (Aug. 22, 2017); Glenn Simpson Testimony before House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, pp. 7-12 (Nov. 14, 2017); Kenneth P. Vogel and Maggie Haberman, “Conservative Website First Funded Anti-Trump Research by Firm That Later Produced Dossier” (New York Times, Oct. 27, 2017).

  12. Matthew J. Gehringer, General Counsel, Perkins Coie LLP, Letter “Re: Fusion GPS” to William W. Taylor III, Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, Counsel for Fusion GPS (Oct. 24, 2017); Jack Gillum and Shawn Boburg, “‘Journalism for rent’: Inside the secretive firm behind the Trump dossier” (Washington Post, Dec. 11, 2017); Adam Entous, Devlin Barrett, and Rosalind S. Helderman, “Clinton campaign, DNC paid for research that led to Russia dossier” (Washington Post, Oct. 24, 2017); Kenneth P. Vogel, “Clinton Campaign and Democratic Party Helped Pay for Russia Trump Dossier” (New York Times, Oct. 24, 2017); Andrew C. McCarthy, “When Scandals Collide” (National Review, Oct. 25, 2017).

  13. In the 2016 campaign, Perkins Coie was also paid $798,047 by President Obama’s political organization, Obama for America. See Sean Casey, “Obama’s Campaign Paid $972,000 to Law Firm That Secretly Paid Fusion GPS in 2016” (Federalist, Oct. 29, 2017).

  14. John Breslin, “Allegations That Clinton Campaign Funded Trump–Russia Research Still Pending At Now-Closed FEC” (Forbes, Jan. 15, 2019) (In FEC filings, Hillary for America reported paying Perkins Coie $5,631,421 for “Legal Services”; the DNC reported paying the firm $6,466,722 for “Legal and Compliance Consulting”; there was no mention of Fusion GPS); Mark Hosenball, “Ex-British spy paid $168,000 for Trump dossier, U.S. firm discloses” (Reuters, Nov. 1, 2017); see also John Solomon, “State Department’s red flag on Steele went to a senior FBI man well before FISA warrant” (The Hill, May 14, 2019); Judicial Watch, “Judicial Watch Sues FBI for Records of Communications and payments to Anti-Trump Dossier Author Steele” (April 16, 2009) (records show at least 11 FBI payments to Steele in 2016); Tom Winter, “FBI releases documents showing payments to Trump dossier author Steele” (NBC News, Aug. 3, 2018).

  15. See Open Source Center website (accessed Nov. 22, 2018); see also Steven Aftergood, “Charter of Open Source Org Is Classified, CIA Says” (Federation of American Scientists, Dec. 12, 2011).

  16. Nellie Ohr, House Judiciary and Oversight Committees Testimony (Oct. 19, 2018) p. 105; see also Diana West, “Nellie Ohr: Woman in the Middle” (American Spectator, Feb. 22, 2018).

  17. Ohr was not “the fourth highest-ranking official in the Justice Department,” as media reporting commonly misstates it; but his job was important—among the Department’s top career (i.e., non-political) slots. He was demoted from it in 2017. Jake Gibson, “Top DOJ official demoted amid probe of contacts with Trump dossier firm” (Fox News, Dec. 7, 2017). I’ve known Bruce Ohr for years, cordially though not well. In an amusing moment in Mr. Ohr’s otherwise tense congressional testimony, he explained that after an important meeting with Christopher Steele, his “first move was to reach out to Andrew McCarthy.” With the help of his questioner, he corrected himself and said he’d meant Andrew McCabe, adding, “Andrew McCarthy will be angry.” Bruce Ohr, House Judiciary and Oversight Committees Testimony (Aug. 28, 2018), p. 79.

  18. Des Beiler, “The British spy behind the Trump dossier helped the FBI bust FIFA” (Washington Post, Jan. 13, 2017).

  19. Toby Harnden, “Trump allies cry foul after former MI6 agent’s [sic] Christopher Steele dossier linked to Obama official” (Times of London, Dec. 10, 2017); Bruce Ohr Testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees (Aug. 28, 2018), pp. 13-14, 177, 185-86.

  20. John T. Picarelli, “Expert Working Group Report on International Organized Crime” (National Institute of Justice, June 2010) (see p. 30, listing Bruce Ohr as chief of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, Nellie Ohr as a researcher for Open Source Works (i.e., the CIA), and Glenn Simpson as a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center in Arlington, Virginia).

  21. Nellie Ohr Testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, (Oct. 19, 2018), pp. 10-12; Bruce Ohr, House Testimony, supra, p.186; McCarthy, “Anatomy of a Farce,” supra. Bruce Ohr, Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report (OGE Form 278e, 2017) (listing Dr. Ohr as an independent contractor, with no reference to Fusion or a compensation amount).

  22. John Solomon, “How a senior DOJ official helped Dem researchers on Trump–Russia case” (The Hill, Aug. 7, 2018).

  23. Simpson House testimony, supra, pp. 78-79.

  24. Bruce Ohr testimony, supra, p. 80 (noting he supervised trial attorney Lisa Page for five years); see also Chapter 3, n. 28.

  25. The Steele dossier is available here: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.html. It appears, somewhat shopworn with yellow highlighting, the form in which it was published by BuzzFeed on January 10, 2017. As further described, infra, BuzzFeed’s reporter, Ken Bensinger, is said to have photographed its pages without authorization when they were made available to him by David Kramer, an aide to the now-deceased Senator John McCain (R. Ariz.), who received a copy of the dossier from Simpson after meeting in London with Steele, and who met with Bensinger pursuant to a request by Steele. Gubarev v. BuzzFeed, No. 17 Civ. 60426-UU (Southern District of Florida), Deposition of David Kramer (Dec. 13, 2017) pp. 58-67; see also Chuck Ross, “John McCain Associate Had Contact with a Dozen Reporters Regarding Steele Dossier” (Daily Caller, March 14, 2019). The penultimate dossier report is dated October 19. The final report, written nearly two months later (i.e., over a month after Trump won the 2016 election), doubles down on Steele’s earlier reporting that Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, met with Russian government operatives in Prague—a claim that was never corroborated, was heatedly denied by Cohen and Trump, and was ultimately rejected by Special Counsel Mueller.

  26. Glenn Simpson Senate Testimony, supra, p. 83, 103-04; Diana West, “Nellie Ohr: Woman in the Middle,” supra.

  27. Trump encouraged the FBI to investigate the incident, insisting it did not happen and concerned that it would upset his wife. His recollection, in reliance on staffers, that he had not stayed overnight in Russia, is almost certainly wrong: He appears to have arrived in Moscow on Friday, November 8, 2013, and left Sunday, November 10, following the pageant. A witness, Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller, told a cong
ressional committee that he had escorted Trump to a hotel room, where he retired, alone. Schiller recalled that, in what he regarded as a joke, a Russian (not identified in press reports of Schiller’s testimony) had offered to send five women to Trump’s room; Schiller and Trump laughed about the offer as they walked to the latter’s room. Mark Murray, “Did Trump stay overnight in Russia in 2013? Evidence points to yes” (NBC News, April 20, 2018). The Mueller Report found no evidence that Trump was compromised by the Kremlin.

  28. James B. Comey, Senate Intelligence Committee Testimony (June 8, 2017) (“I was briefing [then-President-elect Trump] about salacious and unverified material”); Andrew Prokop, “The ‘pee tape’ claim, explained” (Vox, April 23, 2018); see also James R. Clapper, “DNI Clapper Statement on Conversation with President-elect Trump” (Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Jan. 11, 2017) (the day after BuzzFeed published the dossier, Clapper explained that U.S. intelligence agencies had “not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable”).

  29. “According to Source D, where s/he had been present [sic], TRUMP’s (perverted) conduct in Moscow included hiring the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where he knew President and Mrs. Obama (whom he hated) had stayed on one of their official trips to Russia, and defiling the bed where they had slept by employing a number of prostitutes to perform a ‘golden showers’ (urination) show in front of him. The hotel was known to be under FSB control with microphones and concealed cameras in all the main rooms to record anything they wanted to.”

  30. Brian Ross and Matthew Mosk, “US-Russian Businessman Said to Be Source of Key Trump Dossier Claims” (ABC News, Jan 30, 2017) (“a version provided to the FBI included Millian’s name as a source, according to someone who has seen the version given to the FBI”).

  31. Ibid; Mark Maremont, “Key Claims in Trump Dossier Said to Come From Head of Russian-American Business Group” (Wall Street Journal, Jan. 24, 2017); see also Chuck Ross, “Papadopoulos Details His Interactions with ‘Spygate’ Figure and Steele Dossier Source” (Daily Caller, Sept. 8, 2018).