Bongino Dan - Exonerated: the failed takedown of President Donald Trump by the swamp

CHAPTER 5

The Run-Up

N ow the aspersions had all been cast. The dossier had been manufactured. The FISA warrant applicationwhich relied on the duplicate dossier reports that Steele fed to the FBIhad been issued.

What was the next step in bringing down the Trump campaign?

The answer was simple: the FBI management cabal targeting Trump now had to make good on its investigation.

To do that, presumably, all it had to do was follow the road map provided by Glenn Simpson, Christopher Steele, and their magical, FISA-court-fooling dossier. If anything in the dossier was verifiable regarding a Trump-Russia conspiracy, the FBI agents were just the guys to find the incontrovertible evidence needed to bring charges. The FBI is Americas premier law enforcement agency. All agents had to do was find proof that the Russians had kompromat on Trump. Or that Carter Page was a spy. Or that Russia was trading information on Clinton to help the campaign. Find proof of one of those things and they would be on their way to the most explosive, frightening, critical investigation this side of Watergate, Monicagate, and all the other -gates put together.

Im not joking here. If there was illegal influence, if a foreign power blackmailed a presidential candidate, if candidates were relying on outside support to cheat and steal in an electionall or any of that would be huge news. It would throw the nation into turmoil. It would destabilize the government, send tremors through Wall Street, and rattle the very bedrock of our country.

But, again, theres one important point, one key word in all these disturbing scenarios: if.

The opposite of if is if not. But that phrase doesnt appear in any of the FBIs thinking or the mainstream medias thinking.

But it should have appeared. Because the road map wasnt reliable; it was scarred with bogus directions and dead ends. Getting therethat is, arriving at hard, factual, verifiable, conviction-worthy evidence with no ifs, ands, or butswasnt going to be easy.

In fact, by the time the FISA warrant was issued, a lynchpin of the Russiagate myth was already imploding.

THINGS FALL APART

Once again, the story here relies on timing. So lets put the dossier and the FISA warrant to the side for a moment and revisit the tale of George Papadopoulos. I apologize if some of this feels repetitive, but it is important to establish what happened and when.

It is a fact that long before the Carter Page FISA warrant was issued, the FBI started investigating the collusion case against George Papadopoulos. We know this because the FBI still insists that the Papadopoulos case was the one that ignited Russiagate. Not the alleged communications from foreign intelligence in late 2015 and early 2016. Not Glenn Simpsons whispering in the ear of Bruce Ohr or Christopher Steeles meeting him for lunch. No, according to the FBI, it was George Papadopoulos, the young political rookie who had been living in London when he was named to the Trump advisory team.

Almost immediately upon joining the campaignliterally one day after he told colleagues he might be joining Team Trumphis boss in London told him to go to a conference in Rome. Papadopoulos didnt realize he was heading to one of Europes most spy-friendly hangoutsLink Campus Universityand when he showed up, he was introduced to Joseph Mifsud, a middle-aged spinmaster who allegedly told Papadopoulos he could help put the Trump campaign in touch with Russia. A few weeks later, Mifsud, who never actually delivered on any of his claims to Papadopoulos, showed up in London and allegedly revealed that the Russians have dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Emails of Clinton, he said to Papadopoulos when they breakfasted at the Andaz hotel in London. They have thousands of emails.

According to the anti-Trump cabals version of events, Mifsud is a Russian agent. According to Papadopoulos, Mifsud presented himself as having Russian connections but introduced him, via email, to only one person who had tangential Kremlin contacts. Papadopoulos considers Mifsud a fraud and a Western intelligence agent. According to Mifsuds millionaire friend and Swiss lawyer, Stephan Roh, mystery man Mifsud has ties to Western governments. But for the moment, lets just accept the cabals absurd designation that Mifsuds a Russian agent.

The formal investigation, operation Crossfire Hurricane, started on July 31, 2016. But by the middle of September, the FBI case against Papadopoulos was already disintegrating.

Papadopouloss book, Deep State Target , reveals that on September 2, 2016, he got an out of the blue email invitation from Stefan Halper. Remember him? Hes the Western spy who appears to have launched allegations, in conjunction with his U.K. intelligence pal Richard Dearlove, about Lieutenant General Mike Flynns being compromised for talking to a Russian woman at a Cambridge conference in 2014.

Halper offered Papadopoulos $3,000 plus expenses to fly to London to discuss the Leviathan natural gas field. Although Papadopoulos didnt know it at the time, Halper was working as a U.S. government informant. He also had made approaches to Carter Page and to Trump campaign bigwig Sam Clovis.

I think [Halper] was using his meeting with me to give him bona fides to talk to George Papadopoulos, Clovis told the Washington Examiner . He used Carter Page to get to me and he used me to get to George. George was the target. I think George was the target all along.

When Papadopoulos unwittingly took the bait and showed up to meet with Halper, he was put through the wringer. First, Halpers attractive research assistant, Azra Turk, met Papadopoulos for drinks and possibly more. According to Papadopoulos, she was extremely touchy-feely at the bar, flirting while also asking him repeatedly about Trump and Russia and the campaign. Even after he told her directly, I have nothing to do with Russia and dont know anyone else who has anything to do with Russia, either, she kept bringing up the campaign. Says Papadopoulos: Im thinking There is no way this is a Cambridge professors research assistant. The only thing she seems to want to research is Trump, Russia, and me. Im stunned by the come-hither tone of Azra Turk and her classic honey-pot act.

It turns out Papadopouloss suspicions were 100 percent correct. A May 2, 2019, article in the New York Times reports that sources confirmed that Azra Turk was actually a government investigator posing as a research assistant. The F.B.I. sent her to London as part of the counterintelligence inquiry opened that summer to better understand the Trump campaigns links to Russia. The Times said its sources were people familiar with the F.B.I. activities of Mr. Halper, Ms. Turk and the DOJ inspector generals investigation into the FBI investigation.

Lets be clear: the Times does not clearly state that Azra Turkwhich is likely a fake namewas working for the FBI, only that agents sent her there. Papadopoulos, for his part, has stated that he believes she was likely a CIA or Turkish intelligence recruit. Either way, the FBI needs to do a much better job choosing investigators. Papadopoulos quickly raised his suspicions during his two subsequent meetings with Halper. These encounters also veered into interrogations about the campaign and its work with Russia. As he recalls in his book, Halper posed the following types of questions:

Its great that Russia is helping you and the campaign, right, George?

George, you and your campaign are involved in hacking and with Russia, right?

It seems like you are a middleman for Trump and Russia, right?

I know you know about the emails.

Papadopoulos finally grew furious with Halpers line of questioning. What you are talking about is treason. And I have nothing to do with Russia, so stop bothering me about it.