Former British spy Christopher Steele tried to turn a Russian oligarch and close Putin ally to give evidence against the Trump campaign in exchange for solving his legal woes and getting him a visa, The Telegraph reports. In other words, they tried bribing him. The information is revealed in emails uncovered by the NY Times.
Former MI-6 spy and dossier author Christopher Steele was fired from the FBI for lying but continued to work for them. He worked for the Hillary Clinton campaign via Fusion GPS at the same time he was working with the FBI. All this took place while he was assembling an unverifiable anti-Trump Russia dossier.
His dossier said Russian intelligence agencies had compromising personal and business information about Mr. Trump.
In the latest twist, the New York Times reports that the FBI and the Justice Department attempted from 2014-2016 to turn Russian oligarch and Putin friend Oleg Deripaska, whose vast aluminum empire made him Russia’s richest man, into an informant.
They suggested they could ease Deripaska’s legal woes and help him secure a visa for the US.
In one of the FOIA’d emails a couple months back, Steele and FBI then-number 4 man Bruce Ohr express concerns about Deripaska possibly not getting a visa. They discuss the visa process going well in a later email.
THE TIMING IS VERY SUSPICIOUS
In return for FBI help, they asked during a September 2015 meeting for information on organized crime and, in a meeting a year later, on possible Russian aid to Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, according to former and current officials, as well as figures close to Mr. Deripaska.
It went nowhere.
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A year later, FBI agents called unannounced at a home Mr. Deripaska’s owns in New York. They reportedly asked the 50-year-old oligarch whether his former business partner Paul Manafort had worked as a liaison with the Kremlin during his time as Trump campaign chairman.
He said no despite the fact that he had a falling out with Manafort by that time and believed Manafort stole from him.
That was at the same time Obama’s administration was exploring alleged Russia-Trump collusion. It was also the same time as the dossier ‘research’ was compiled.
Since then — when Bruce Ohr testified last week — Ohr said Steele told him he believed Russian intelligence had Mr. Trump “over a barrel”. The guy’s a joke.
Ohr’s wife Nellie is a Russia expert who worked with Fusion GPS at the same time to get Trump. She is reported to be a Stalin sympathizer.
Steele is the guy who worried he would be exposed when former FBI director Jim Comey was fired.
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