(TNS) During his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday about his FISA abuse report, DoJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz was asked a bajillion times by Democrats whether he found any ‘deep state plot’ or ‘political motivations’ behind the Spygate probe.
Each time he was asked, Horowitz gave a similar version of this answer, paraphrasing: ‘No, I didn’t find any testimonial or documentary evidence of political bias or deep state plot’ against then-GOP candidate Donald Trump.
That seems incredulous, given the evidence of blatant anti-Trump bias documented in texts between fired FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page alone.
But the one lingering question that has yet to be answered definitively is this: Who actually came up with the “Russian collusion” narrative? We know who implemented it, but who devised it?
The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberly Strassel thinks she may have stumbled onto the answer after poring over Horowitz’s lengthy report: Fusion GPS’ Glenn Simpson.
In a series of tweets, Strassel lays out a central passage in the Horowitz report that highlights conflicting narratives about when the operation to spy on the Trump campaign actually began.
1) Buried in the IG report is a line that poses an enormous question, one that is central to everything, and really must be answered.
Remember: According to all relevant players, prior to July of 2016, nobody had a Trump-Russia collusion narrative on their minds. …(cont)— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 12, 2019
2)Indeed, the FBI says it was only the Downer tip-off at end-July that spurred the investigation. Downer for his part says it was public revelation in July of the DNC hack that caused him to finally wonder about collusion and connect his spring conversation with Papadopoulos.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 12, 2019
3)Fusion GPS's Glenn Simpson, meanwhile, in Senate testimony, "stress[ed]" he hired Steele in May to look at Trump's "business activities" in Russia….By Simpson's telling (under penalty of perjury), Steele just sort of stumbled on this much "broader" "political conspiracy."
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 12, 2019
4) But here is what Steele told the IG: That in May 2016, Simpson approached Steele to "assist in determining Russia's actions related to the 2016 election"; "whether Russia was trying to achieve a particular election outcome"; and…
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 12, 2019
5)"whether there were any ties between the Russian government and Trump and his campaign." (Page 93) Seems Simpson had a pretty good bead on the "narrative" long before the govt. claims to have had it and before even his own source had reported it to him. Huh.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 12, 2019
6) Let's hope Attorney John Durham provides some answers on who exactly knew what in the spring of 2016.
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) December 12, 2019
We know that the Christopher Steele dossier was central to the FBI’s securing of four FISA surveillance warrants against Carter Page, then a Trump campaign national security adviser.
We know that Glenn Simpson’s Fusion GPS was initially hired by Daniel Jones, a former staffer for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). to do the ‘Trump research.’
We know that the dossier was paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, but that Fusion GPS research into the Trump campaign was begun by a ‘Republican’ megadonor, Paul Singer, who financed the Free Beacon.
We know the dossier was bogus.
- Check out “DEEP STATE 2019: A New Generation of Scandalous Manipulationâ€Â — download for FREE in Crisis Reports
Sure sounds like someone was a lot more concerned about a Trump victory a lot sooner than we’ve been told. Otherwise, why go to so much trouble to target a presidential contender that had yet to secure the GOP nomination?
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