9. Intelligence Community
9.1. US Intelligence involving October Surprise
This section has been added to look closer at Comey, the Trump campaign and the events surrounding the email October Surprise that likely led to Trump’s victory. There’s some key points that are relevant to the Russia discussion.
- 10/18/2016 - "“I think my father-in-law forced their hand in this,” Lara Trump said in an interview with Rita Cosby on WABC radio.” Source
- 10/29/2016 - “But although Mr. Comey told Congress this summer that the Clinton investigation was complete, he believed that if word of the new emails leaked out — and it was sure to leak out, he concluded — he risked being accused of misleading Congress and the public ahead of an election, colleagues said.” Source
- 11/3/2016 – Giuliani hinted at October surprise, knowledge of things coming from FBI. Source
- 11/4/2016 - **Extremely pro-Trump group at the FBI intensified after Comey decision to not recommend indictment of Clinton. Source
- 1/27/2017 – A Russian hacker, Yevgeniy Nikulin, was picked up by the FBI in Prague. Formspring, one of the sites he allegedly hacked, was the platform used for sexting by Anthony Weiner, the former New York mayoral candidate and husband of Huma Abedin, Clinton’s closest aide. The discovery of emails linked to Clinton on Weiner’s laptop damaged her campaign in its final two weeks after the FBI director, James Comey, revealed their existence. Source
- 5/24/2017 - A secret document that officials say played a key role in then-FBI Director James B. Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation has long been viewed within the FBI as unreliable and possibly a fake, according to people familiar with its contents. Source
9.2. US Intelligence after Trump Administration
- 08/5/2016 - Ex-Director of CIA “In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.” - Source
- 1/11/2017 – Clapper speaks with Trump regarding leaks, dossier, intel reports. Source
- 1/12/2017 - Last April, the CIA director was shown intelligence that worried him. It was - allegedly - a tape recording of a conversation about money from the Kremlin going into the US presidential campaign. It was passed to the US by an intelligence agency of one of the Baltic States. The CIA cannot act domestically against American citizens so a joint counter-intelligence taskforce was created. Source
- 02/14/2017 - Current and Former American Officials confirm the Trump campaign had contact with Russia. Source
- 02/14/2017 - Our own Intel agencies and spies are withholding information from the White House because of the concern that it has been compromised by Russia. Source
- 2/17/2017 – "US intel community ready to go nuclear against Trump over Russia ties, claims former NSA analyst. Source
- 2/17/2017 – Report comes out that Trump called CIA director angry about report of them withholding information. CIA denies. Source
- 2/18/2017 - But sources told CBS News there is a “chill” in the flow of intelligence to the White House, both because of comments from the president about the intelligence community and anxiety over the handling of sensitive information about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Source
- 2/27/2017 – Former CIA Officer John Sipher “Russians have been doing this for decades, If not hundreds of years, it’s what they do.” Source
- 3/5/2017 - Day after Kislyak met with Trump camp Department of Homeland Security began preparing a nationwide warning about foreign intelligence officials attempting to elicit information from U.S. government personnel. Source
- 3/6/2017 - Former Central Intelligence Agency Director Michael Hayden isn’t ready to say there’s a direct link between Russia and President Trump or his campaign — but, he says, “there’s a lot of smoke.” Source
- 3/9/2017 - Is Trump Being Investigated? ‘No Comment,’ Justice Dept. Says. Source
- 3/14/2017 - Intelligence expert Malcolm Nance on Trump scandal: “As close to Benedict Arnold as we’re ever going to get” Source
- 3/22/2017 - The FBI has information that indicates associates of President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, US officials told CNN. Source
- 3/28/2017 - Ex-acting CIA director tells MSNBC: Russia carried out its “most effective covert operation in decades” Source
- 4/13/2017 - FBI Director James Comey said Americans should be aware of foreign efforts to undermine confidence in U.S. elections and mindful of the possibility that what they’re reading might be part of an organized disinformation campaign. Source
- 4/20/2017 - US authorities have prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Source
- 4/21/2017 - The CIA’s liaison to the White House was abruptly fired from his role after clashing with National Security Council member Ezra Cohen-Watnick, one of three sources who provided documents to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes Source
- 5/28/2017 - “I have to say that, without specifically affirming or confirming these conversations — since, even though they’re in the public realm, they’re still classified — just from a theoretical standpoint, I will tell you that my dashboard warning light was clearly on and I think that was the case with all of us in the intelligence community, very concerned about the nature of these approaches to the Russians,” - Clapper Source
- 5/29/2017 - Fmr. CIA & NSA Director on Russia probe: “There’s enough circumstantial evidence… that this deserve a full airing” Source
- 5/30/2017 - Clapper asks "“Why all the cloak-and-dagger secrecy?” Clapper said. “If the intent was simply to reach out to establish — to make acquaintance, one wonders if there is something worse than that or more nefarious than that.” Source
- 6/6/2017 - On March 22, less than a week after being confirmed by the Senate, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats attended a briefing at the White House together with officials from several government agencies. As the briefing was wrapping up, Trump asked everyone to leave the room except for Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The president then started complaining about the FBI investigation and Comey’s handling of it, said officials familiar with the account Coats gave to associates Source
- 6/7/2017 - James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, said Wednesday that President Donald Trump had asked him to “refute the infamous dossier” detailing explosive claims about his campaign’s ties to Russia, but he “could not and would not” do so. Source
- 6/8/2017 - Clapper : “The big story is Russian interference in our process,” “And they exceeded their wildest dreams and expectations, I’m sure, by the discord, doubt and disruptions they have caused in our political process.” Source
9.3. Foreign Intel (Allies)
- 02/15/2017 - US Allies have now also Intercepted Russia-Trump Advisor Communications. Source
- 3/1/2017 - American allies, including the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials — and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin — and associates of President-elect Trump, according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence. Source
- 4/13/2017 - Ex-MI6 chief accuses Donald Trump of secretly borrowing from Russia to keep his property empire afloat during the financial crisis. Source
- 4/13/2017 - GCHQ warned US Intel of suspicious Russian contacts in late 2015. UK, Germany, Estonia, Poland, Australia are all said to have passed on material to US Intelligence as well as Dutch and French sources. One source claims concrete evidence of collusion. Source
- 4/28/2017 - The UK government was given details last December of allegedly extensive contacts between the Trump campaign and Moscow by Christopher Steele. Source