Grassley Holds Unique Perspective on Deep State Motives for a Cover-Up
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley sent a forboding tweet a few days ago outlining the possibility of the FISA investigation would result in a “deep six” cover-up.
Grassley has a unique perspective on a very specific element to the construct of the FISA application, and the political use therein, that most have forgotten. Back in 2018 when Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley was hot on the trail of a very specific individual that has had almost no attention since. The election clock ran out on Grassley; the mid-terms took place; and Grassley was never able to get to his target.
The background to this tweet needs a little context {GO DEEP} and surrounds two individuals who have NOT been identified as being questioned by either IG Michael Horowitz or U.S. Attorney John Durham.
Those two individuals are: Daniel Jones, former lead staffer for former SSCI Vice-Chair Dianne Feinstein; and a lawyer for Christopher Steele named Adam Waldman.
In late 2018, at the same time when the DOJ was initiating a cover-up to protect SSCI leaker James Wolfe, Adam Waldman was a specific person of interest for Chairman Grassley as his action related to the construction of the Steele Dossier and the eventual use of the dossier in gaining a FISA Title-1 surveillance warrant.
Without trying to repeat too much prior research, the gist of the FISA issue surrounded activity that was taking place in March through May 2017.
In the spring of 2017 the FBI was using DOJ official Bruce Ohr as a conduit to Christopher Steele. At the same time Senator Mark Warner -having replaced Feinstein on the SSCI- was using Adam Waldman as a conduit to Christopher Steele. The purposes of both sets of engagement were identical, all of the people constructing the operations against President Trump needed to be sure that Steele was going to stay solid with the team message.
By March 2017 the goal was to initiate and continue the investigation of President Trump under the fraudulent pretense of collusion with Russia. The FBI and DOJ ‘small group’ were still carrying out their 2016 operation and preparing to hand it off to a special counsel. The investigation itself needed the appearance of validity and Chris Steele’s dossier was a central component of the “Russia Collusion-Conspiracy” narrative.
The DOJ, FBI, CIA and ODNI knew the provenance of the dossier was sketchy at best. After the election direct contact with Chris Steele, while the possibility of the evidence being exposed as political opposition research, was impossible. This is why Bruce Ohr and Adam Waldman were used as intermediaries by the FBI and Mark Warner respectively.
♦ Chris Steele remaining authentic to the claims in the dossier was a paramount concern. If Steele backed-away or admitted publicly the dossier information was nothing more than an assembly of Fusion-GPS inspired opposition research, the framework for the Russian conspiracy would collapse.
SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner was the allied member of the group in congress. The House was under republican control (Chairman Nunes) and the Senate Intelligence Committee (Vice-Chair Warner) was more purposeful for the primary role of supporting the Russian conspiracy story as outlined within the dossier.
Fusion-GPS was pushing the narrative through sources and contacts within mainstream news. The FBI, DOJ and Intelligence Community, writ large, were leaking to their allies in media to build upon the same narrative.
Simultaneously FBI Director James Comey was keeping notes of all interactions he was having with the target, President Trump. Multiple people and interests were all working on the same goal, diminish President Trump through the fraudulent auspices of the Russia-Collusion-Conspiracy investigation and narrative.
♦ By March 2017 the need to push more Russia-conspiracy fuel into the media bloodstream was critical.
On March 17th, 2017, Senator Mark Warner -under the auspices of the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation- requested the copy of the FISA application, used against U.S. person Carter Page, that contained the dossier as source material and evidence. The ODNI, Dan Coats, gave the written document to SSCI Security Director James Wolfe to deliver and return; albeit with a hidden leak detector as the October 21st 2016 origination date was modified.
When the FISA application arrived at the Senate SCIF, Senator Mark Warner told SSCI Security Director James Wolfe to leak the content of that application (original and one renewal) to the media. James Wolfe took pictures of the 82 pages and sent them via a secured AP to Buzzfeed reporter Ali Watkins.
This leak would provide more fuel for the narrative as it showed there was an official investigative basis for the use of the dossier.
After Warner and Wolfe leaked the FISA application, Warner then turned back to contacts with Adam Waldman the lawyer for Chris Steele. It was now more important than ever that Chris Steele lay low, stick to the original script of his authorship and not provide any comments that would undermine the media’s use of the FISA application in a series of dozens of stories throughout late March and April 2017.
As highlighted by text messages from Adam Waldman to Senator Mark Warner, Chris Steele was subsequently “under a lot of duress“.
The intentional leaking of the FISA application now put Steele in a very stressful position; the FBI had used political opposition research to gain a FISA court warrant, the media was reporting on it, and Chris Steele’s intelligence reputation was part of the narrative.
Dianne Feinstein’s former staffer Daniel Jones was in communication with Glenn Simpson at Fusion-GPS and Adam Waldman representing Christopher Steele. Multiple left-wing entities had given Dan Jones $50,000,000 to pay Simpson and Steele to continue the effort and retain the premise. In essence, Dan Jones was the bag-man for the pay-offs.
Payments made to Glenn Simpson would be used to keep fueling the media story, bolster reporting of the FBI investigation and further build the Russia narrative. All of this was predicated on Chris Steele maintaining the story that his dossier was an official intelligence product. As a consequence Daniel Jones also paid Adam Waldman and Chris Steele for their ongoing support.
Throughout this period in 2017 Daniel Jones was the bag-man traveling between Glenn Simpson, Adam Waldman and his prior work contact on the SSCI, Senator Mark Warner.
This was the trail Senator Grassley was following in late 2018. Senator Grassley knew Waldman and Jones were the keys to unraveling the sketchy construct of the dossier and how it was purposefully used in the FISA application. Essentially the FISA application is built upon political opposition research passed-off as intelligence. That’s the primary FISA issue.
What Senator Grassley is signaling now, is how the IG’s reach is limited. While it has been reported that IG Horowitz has interviewed Chris Steele, the IG has likely never interviewed Adam Waldman (Steele’s lawyer) or Daniel Jones, the bag-man.
Additionally, Grassley is most certainly aware that Senator Mark Warner used SSCI Security Director James Wolfe to leak the FISA application to media; and Grassley watched as the DOJ covered that up to protect the SSCI.
After his arrest for leaking classified documents, SSCI Security Director James Wolfe threatened to subpoena Senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee (July 27, 2018) for his defense. The DOJ (Rod Rosenstein authorizing) quickly cut a deal with Wolfe and dropped the charges down to a single charge of lying to investigators.
{Go Deep}
Immediately following that transparent DOJ cover-up, in August 2018, while he was Judiciary Committee Chairman, Chuck Grassley requested testimony from Mr. Adam Waldman, surrounding his contacts and engagements with Christopher Steele, DOJ/FBI officials, and contacts with Mark Warner to undermine and remove President Donald Trump.
Grassley knew in 2018 the key to the corrupt use of the FISA construct was the Steele Dossier; and Grassley also knew the sketchy people behind the dossiers’ use were Adam Waldman and Daniel Jones.
From Adam Waldman and Dan Jones all of the connections with the dossier participants become visible. Those middle-men connect to Glenn Simpson, Chris Steele, Bruce Ohr, Mark Warner and the FBI officials utilizing the dossier in their political investigation. It is highly likely those middle-men would also connect to the participants in the Weissmann and Mueller investigation.
In a response letter released August 17th, 2018, (full pdf) lawyers representing Mr. Waldman told Senator Chuck Grassley their client was “out of the country and not expected to return for several weeks.” SEE BELOW:
However, as we noted at the time, this was a lie.
Internet researcher/investigator almostjingo noticed that Mr. Waldman’s wife Barbara Sturm posted an instagram picture August 22nd, 2018, showing them dining with friends in New York.
(Link) Barbara Sturm second from left, husband Adam Waldman far right.The letter from Mr. Waldman’s lawyers to Chuck Grassley was intentionally false and simply an effort to avoid giving testimony to congress. Adam Waldman could not be “out of the country for several weeks” and simultaneously having dinner in New York.