Timeline of U.S. Political Transformation, 6a

§6a. The Insurance Policy, Pre-Election, July - November 2016

May 28, 2022

The prospect of a U.S. president prioritizing U.S. national interests sowed panic among top Obama Administration officials, whose careers were devoted to the interests of other nations and to international bureaucracies. In the chancelleries of Europe, the groves of academe, the editorial offices and TV-news studios, and in the cloud-chambers of the technocracy, resonated the fear that such a president would be apocalyptically dangerous.

The sequence of actions and events, policies and programs that transformed the United States from a free society into one lacking the Constitutionally required ‘consent of the governed’. How this gap in governance is increasingly filled by force and violence, livelihood threats, mass surveillance, centralized control of messaging, censorship, distraction, and miscounting of electoral results. Updated by inserting facts often revealed years after the event into the record when they actually took place.

July 3, 2016: Shawn Lucas (38) and filmmaker Ricardo Villaba deliver summons to DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz at DNC’s Washington DC HQ pursuant to a class action fraud lawsuit on behalf of Bernie Sanders supporters. Lucas is found dead on August 2, cause unknown.

July 5, 2016: 1,976 megabytes of data are downloaded from DNC server in 87 seconds, yielding a transfer rate of 22.7 megabytes per second, according to forensic tests done by VIPS. Fastest on-line transfer speeds obtainable are 11 megabytes per second, indicating DNC server not 'hacked' by Russia or by anyone. || Source1 , Source2

July 5, 2016: Steele and Simpson approach FBI. Steele provides a preview of his dossier, including the 'pee tape' story, to FBI agent Mike Gaeta. Meeting in London to discuss his anti-Trump Russia research, Steele tells Gaeta the dossier’s 'ultimate client were (sic) the leadership of the Clinton presidential campaign.' Steele explains 'the FBI officer he met had cleared his lines with the Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland.' || Source: British Justice Mark Warby's July 2020 ruling against Steele. Gaeta later testifies to Senate Intelligence Committee 'I've seen crazy source-related stuff in 20 years in New York and this was one of the craziest'. || Source1: page 900 of the fifth and final volume of the Senate committee’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election; Source2

July 5, 2016: FBI Director Comey announces Hillary Clinton will not be charged with violating USC Section 793 (f) for having 'removed from its proper place of custody' classified information, because her 'extreme carelessness' was not intended to cause harm. The statute penalizes 'gross negligence' regardless of intent. Comey's assumption of DOJ prosecutorial authority is later cited in a letter by Rod Rosenstein as one cause for his dismissal on May 9, 2017. || Source

July 10, 2016: DNC employee Seth Rich shot in back twice and killed in Washington DC, no money or valuables taken; the murder remains unsolved. U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn later (Aug 5, 2020) requests assistance of English courts in making Assange's testimony available on whether such contact had occurred prior to Seth Rich's death. Assange says in interview on Dutch TV that 'our sources take great risks' but that Wikileaks never reveals sources. || Sources: U.S. NY Southern District Court Case 1:18-cv-02223-GBD-SN Document 173 Filed 08/05/20; Assange interview

July 12, 2016: Cambridge conference closes with a session including Halper, Dearlove, and Page.

July 15, 2016: DNC pays $849,407.97 to Perkins Coie through Aug 26, 2016 for 'legal and compliance consulting', mis-stating the actual purpose which was opposition research done by Christopher Steele with Perkins Coie fees routed through Fusion GPS. Federal Election Commission finds in March 2022 that DNC misrepresented the purpose of these payments in its official reports. DNC settles the FEC complaint by paying a fine of $105,000 on March 29, 2022. || Source1: FEC letter of March 29, 2022; Source2

July 2016: Stefan Halper meets with Trump advisers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos on pretext of seeking their advice, but actually to gather information to justify FBI investigation of them and anyone they communicated with, including Trump. Documents concerning this meeting are among those declassified by President Trump in Jan 2021, and sought by FBI in its raid on Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago in Aug 2022. || Source

July 19, 2016: Steele delivers his dossier to FBI counterintelligence chief Peter Strzok. Seeking to distribute his dossier widely, sometime after this Steele also gives it to State Dept Foreign Affairs Policy Board member and Brookings president Strobe Talbott, a longtime Clinton associate. || Source re Talbott: Aug 1, 2018 Court filing by Steel in U.K. defending against defamation suit by AlfaBank owners.

Summer 2016: Fusion GPS employee Laura Seago meets with DNC lawyers Marc Elias and Michael Sussman, and tech executive Rodney Joffe, 'to discuss allegations of communications between the Trump organization and Alfa-Bank'. These allegations are later published, without verification, by Slate on Oct 31, 2016. || Source: Testimony in May 2022 trial of Michael Sussman.

July 20, 2016: Fusion GPS contacts FBI's Crossfire Hurricane team with allegations claiming Russian ties with Trump and aides.

July 22, 2016: WikiLeaks publishes 19,252 emails and 8,034 attachments from DNC, including emails from seven key DNC Staff members. The DNC emails range from Jan 2015 to May 25, 2016. Julian Assange denies source is Russian: 'We can say, we have said, repeatedly ... that our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party'.

July 23, 2016: FBI Director Comey launches Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

July 26, 2016: Candidate Clinton approves a plan to stir up a scandal against Donald Trump by accusing him of ties to Russian President Putin and alleging collusion with Russian Government to hack DNC communications. CIA Dir Brennan later briefs President Obama 'and other senior national security officials' on this intel, including 'alleged approval by Hillary Clinton of July 26, 2016 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services'. || Source: CIA Director Brennan handwritten notes declassified Oct 7, 2020 and Sept 17, 2016 CIA memo advising FBI Dir Comey and Asst Dir Strzok of Clinton's plan; letter from CIA Dir John Ratcliffe Sept 29, 2020 to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham.

Trump sues Clinton, Steele, and the DNC on March 24, 2022, for 'falsifying evidence, deceiving law enforcement, and exploiting access to highly-sensitive data sources' to vilify Trump and 'to cripple Trump’s bid for presidency by fabricating a scandal that would be used to trigger an unfounded federal investigation and ignite a media frenzy'. || Source

July 30, 2016: DOJ official Bruce Ohr and wife Nellie meet with Steele at Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Ohr reports meeting to FBI Deputy Director McCabe.

July 31, 2016: FBI Director Comey opens a counterintelligence investigation, called 'Crossfire Hurricane', into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government, initially due to information on Papadopoulos's early knowledge of Russians having damaging material on Clinton.

Late July 2016: CIA director John Brennan convenes a group of officials from the CIA, NSA and FBI to investigate Russian interference.

Summer 2016: Comey tells Obama about FBI's Trump-Russia investigation.

Aug 2016: GCHQ Director Hannigan informs U.S. CIA Director Brennan of 'suspicious interactions'.

Aug 2016: FBI official Peter Strzok texts Lisa Page about 'insurance policy' they discussed in McCabe's office.

Aug 2016: D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier resigns, stating 'The criminal justice system in this city is broken. It is beyond broken'. DC Police clueless about Seth Rich murder.

Aug 2016: CIA Director John Brennan meets British GCHQ Director Robert Hannigan in Washington DC. President Obama requests information from GCHQ on candidate Donald Trump, avoiding use of CIA, FBI, and DOJ to ensure U.S. agencies were not identified as sources of the request. Judge Andrew Napolitano reveals this in a Fox News broadcast on March 14, 2017. Source

Aug 2, 2016: Paul Manafort meets in New York with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Ukranian businessman with alleged ties to Russian intelligence; Kilimnik proposes a 'peace plan' involving Russian annexation of Eastern Ukraine. || Source

Aug 5, 2016: Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell writes in New York Times 'Mr Putin had recruited Mr Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.' Clinton campaign releases ad claiming Trump is in league with Putin, echoing CIA/FBI/Fusion GPS assertions. || Source

Aug 6, 2016: FBI opens sub-case probe into Michael Flynn under Crossfire Hurricane umbrella.

Aug. 8, 2016: FBI attorney Lisa Page texts her paramour, FBI's head of Counterespionage Peter Strzok, '[Trump is] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!' Strzok replies,'No. No he won't. We'll stop it.'

Aug 9, 2016: Rice, Haines, Monaco, Clapper, Brennan, Lynch, Comey begin 'Secret Circle' meetings on Russian 'threat'; NSA's Rogers excluded. || Source

August 9, 2016: WikiLeaks announces $20,000 reward for information on murder of Seth Rich.

Aug 2016: Comey informs Obama, Clapper, Brennan, Rogers, Rice at a meeting in the WH Situation Room that the FBI is investigating whether any U.S. person 'had worked with Russians in their efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election'. 'Comey stated that after he provided this information, no one in the Situation Room responded or followed up with any questions.' || Source1: IG Report, Footnote 194 and Source2

Rice later testifies under oath to Senate Intelligence Committee 'We were not informed by Director Comey or the Attorney General that there was an active investigation of anybody in the Trump orbit.'

Aug 15, 2016: Peter Strzok sends a text message to DOJ Lawyer Lisa Page describing the 'insurance policy', in case Hillary Clinton loses election. 'I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way [Trump] gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. ...It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.'

Aug 17, 2016: FBI secretly uses intelligence briefing to surveil candidate Trump and Michael Flynn for FBI Crossfire Hurricane investigation. FBI sends two agents to two-hour meeting with Trump and Flynn to assess Flynn's mannerisms as baseline for further investigation of Flynn later.

Aug 25, 2016: CIA Director John Brennan briefs Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid about possible links between Trump associates and Russian operatives. Brennan 'indicates that unnamed advisers to Mr. Trump might be working with the Russians to interfere in the election.'

Aug 27, 2016: Reid writes a letter to Comey detailing his concern about the Trump campaign’s potential collusion with Russia, citing former CIA Deputy Director Morell's Aug 5 claim that Trump is 'an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation'. Brennan uses Reid’s letter to motivate Comey to open an investigation into the Trump campaign.

Aug 31, 2016: State Dept official George Kent warns colleagues by email of risks of U.S. Govt association with corrupt Ukranian company Burisma: '[W]ould we want an article on the front page of the Washington Post (and in this case, the Kyiv Post, and on the FB pages of Sergiy Leshchenko and Mustafa Nayyem) commenting about this public private partnership with Burisma, the link to Hunter Biden, and the link to Zlochevsky, who almost certainly paid off the PGO in December 2014 (I had the then First deputy PG Danylenko tell me the bribe was $7 million) to have the case against him closed and his $23 million in assets frozen in the UK unfrozen?' || Source: Senate HSGA and Finance Committees report, Oct 2020

Sept 2016: Brennan briefs top House and Senate leaders of both parties on evidence derived from GCHQ of possible Kremlin efforts to help Trump win the presidency.

Sept 2016: Steele provides his dossier to State Dept Johnathan Winer. Winer serves as Steele's distributor in State Dept and to multiple consulting firms. Winer distills the dossier into a two-page summary for Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland. Nuland notifies Secretary of State John Kerry. Winer also meets wth Sidney Blumenthal, who provides notes (the 'second dossier') by Clinton associate Cody Shearer with similar assertions. || Source

Sept 2016: FBI agents show up unannounced at Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska's residence in New York, ask him whether Paul Manafort, his former partner, had served as a link to Putin during his time as Trump’s campaign chairman. Deripaska says he is 'no friend of Manafort' due to their dispute involving work in Ukraine, but that it is incredible that Russian authorities would rely on Manafort for anything, since he has been working for Ukraine for seven years. Deripaska tells the FBI agents 'You are trying to create something out of nothing'. Deripaska thinks FBI is trying to get him to connect Manafort with Putin. FBI agents ask Deripaska to contact them if he finds out anything about Manafort working as Russian agent. || Source1 ; Source2

Sept 2016: MI6 advises FBI Christopher Steele is 'honest and persistent but sometimes showed questionable judgment in pursuing targets that others viewed as a waste of time'. Source: IG Horowitz Report.

Sept 2, 2016: Lisa Page texts Peter Strzok that 'Potus [Obama] wants to know everything we're doing'.

Sept 2, 2016: Halper emails Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Papadopoulos, offering him $3,000 and airfare to London to deliver a paper about energy issues in Turkey, Israel and Cyprus.

Sept 8, 2016: China Molybdenum, a supplier of corrosion-resistant materials for tanks, ships, and other military hardware, begins a series of purchases leading to 80 percent ownership of Congolese sources of copper, cobalt, molybdenum and rare earths. China Molybdenum then grants Hunter Biden's BHR terms that guarantee 'an exclusive annual rate of return (specific to each individual Investor)', the right to receive a return of the invested amount plus this rate, agrees to assist BHR in obtaining loans, guarantees BHR's loans up to $690 million, and agrees to introduce additional investors if needed. Separately, China Molybdenum guarantees a loan of $700 million from the China Construction Bank to BHR. The extraordinary generosity of these terms is unprecedented in the annals of finance. Acquisition of overseas sources of rare earths reinforces China's WTO-defiant restrictions on exports of these materials. || Source

Sept 17, 2016: CIA sends written referral to FBI Dir Comey and Asst Dir Strzok of Candidate Clinton's July 26 approval of a plan to vilify Donald Trump by tieing him to 'Russian hackers hampering US elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server'. Source: CIA memo declassified Oct 7, 2020, published on Scribd.

Sept 19, 2016: Clinton and DNC lawyer Michael Sussman writes to FBI General Counsel James Baker, 'I have something time-sensitive (and sensitive) I need to discuss. Do you have availability for a short meeting tomorrow? I’m coming on my own – not on behalf of a client or company – want to help the Bureau. Thanks.' FBI General Counsel James Baker confirms in sworn testimony that Sussman 'said he was not appearing before me on behalf of any particular client'. Sussman claims in this meeting that Russian firm AlfaBank is 'close to the Kremlin' and that cyber-experts have reason to believe AlfaBank is operating a secret communications channel with the Trump organization. Hearing this, Baker believes this secret communication 'is, on its face, a potential national security threat'. Sussman bills the Clinton campaign for his time in this endeavor. Sussman is later indicted by Special Counsel Durham for lying to the FBI. || Source1: Durham indictment; Source2 ; Source3

FBI supervisory counterintelligence analyst Brian Auten confirms in the trial of Steele sub-source Igor Danchenko that the FBI, still seeking corroboration in Oct 2021, offered Christopher Steele one million dollars if he could find anyone who could confirm for the record that the charges against Trump in his dossier were true. Auten later testifies in 2022 that the FBI could not corroborate the charges at the time (Sept 2016), which therefore do not pass the standard ‘probable cause’ test. The FBI proceeds anyway with the application for a FISA warrant to spy on Trump aide Carter Page, using the uncorroborated dossier as the sole basis. FBI omits the fact of non-corroboration from its application to the FISA Court. Steele, despite the FBI offer of a million dollars in Oct 2021, still cannot find anyone else to substantiate his allegations. || Source

Sept (mid to late Sept) 2016: FBI provides intel to Christopher Steele in a meeting in Rome, from 'an internal Trump campaign source,... a human source within the Trump campaign'. This source may be Stephen Halper, an American in London with extensive CIA experience. Halper elicits Trump campaign info from Papadopolous and Page, whom he invites to conferences. DOD Office of Net Assessment pays Halper $411,000 in 2016 - 17. || Source1 ; Source2

Sept 23, 2016: Yahoo News publishes an article by Michael Isikoff about Carter Page's July 2016 trip to Moscow, based on information provided by Geoffrey Steele. Steele does not disclose these unauthorized media contacts to the FBI. || Source1 ; Source2

Sept 29, 2016: OFA, Obama's post-presidential organization, pays exactly $700,000 to Perkins Coie law firm for 'legal services'. Total paid during 2016 is nearly $800,000. The law firm pays an undisclosed amount to Fusion GPS for false allegations obtained from Igor Danchenko in Steele's dossier. || Source and FEC records

Sept 29, 2016: California amends Section 3017 of the Elections Code to approve ballot trafficking by removing then-existing restrictions on who could return a voter's mail-in ballot. The legislation 'authorizes the designation of any person to return a vote by mail ballot'. || Source1 ; Source2

Oct 2, 2016: Secretary of State Clinton proposes drone strike to silence Julian Assange and Wikileaks. || Source

Oct 3, 2016: Meeting in Rome for nearly three hours, FBI provides highly classified information on the 'Crossfire Hurricane' investigation to private contractor Steele. Info to Steele includes details of cases against Page, Papadopoulos, Manafort, and Flynn, and secret communications from Australian Government. Steele briefs Fusion GPS' Simpson on this info. || Source1: IG Report; Source2

Oct 11, 2016: Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec meets with Steele to hear his description of Russian election-interference operations. Kavalec writes Steele’s client 'is keen to see this information come to light prior to November 8', indicating the purpose is political. Steele says 'those recruited were paid out of the Russian Consulate in Miami', according to her meeting notes. Kavalec, noting there has never been a Russian Consulate in Miami, and other fanciful statements, assesses Steele's credibility as unreliable.

Oct 12, 2016: FBI field office in New York, reports to FBI counter-intelligence chief Strzok and Deputy Director McCabe that they find some of Hillary Clinton's missing classified emails on Anthony Weiner's computer, pursuant to a warrant issued in Sept 2016. (Weiner was the husband of Hillary Clinton adviser and confidante Huma Abedin. Weiner had resigned as Congressional Representative due to his repeated 'sexting' of teenage girls.)

Oct 13, 2016: Kavalec reports her negative assessment of Steele's credibility in an email to FBI and other agencies.

Oct 13, 2016: FBI renews its request for images (complete copies) of DNC servers, in order to determine whether remote hacking by Russia or any other outside entity occurred. DNC retains private cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike to take the server images. Thus the Intelligence Community's Oct 7 accusation of Russia could not have been based on the still-unavailable forensic evidence.

Oct 14, 2016: Melissa Hodgman, wife of FBI's Peter Strzok, is promoted to deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Enforcement Division.

Oct 2016: Steele meets with FBI officials Peter Strzok and Bruce Ohr, who offer to pay him to continue his investigation of Trump.

Oct 19, 2016: Steele writes his last memo for dossier provided to FBI. The FBI authorizes payment of $50,000 to Steele. Fusion GPS had paid Steele $160,000.

Oct. 21, 2016: DOJ and FBI apply for FISA warrant to spy on Trump adviser Carter Page. FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates sign the application. The FISA Court approves, based on 'new' evidence consisting of Steele's dossier and a Yahoo article by Michael Isikoff based on the Steele dossier. FBI omits mention of the DNC funding of the Steele dossier. FBI's first FISA warrant to spy on Carter Page granted by FISA Judge Contreras, based on fraudulent unverified allegations in the Steele dossier. FBI asserts Steele’s 'reporting has been corroborated and used in criminal proceedings' and the FBI has determined him to be 'reliable', though FBI had not attempted any verification of its own. FISA Court relies on FBI misrepresentations in granting this warrant to spy, and in granting three renewals on Jan 12, April 7, June 29, 2017. || Source1: DOJ IG Horowitz Report and FISA Court judgment by Judge Rosemary Collyer; Source2

Oct 24, 2016: Benjamin Wittes, confidant of FBI Director James Comey and editor-in-chief of the blog Lawfare, writes of the need for an 'insurance policy' in case Trump wins.

Oct 2016: DOJ (Yates?) informs Comey Steele 'had been paid to develop opposition research' by Clinton campaign and DNC.

Oct 24, 2016: Rogers verbally informs FISA Court of his findings re violation of minimization ('About' nebulous catchall queries) requirements.

Oct 26, 2016: Rogers presents written findings of his audit formally to FISA Court, which had been unaware of the query violations until then.

Oct 28, 2016: FBI Director Comey notifies Congress that he is reopening Clinton probe due to Clinton emails found on Anthony Wiener laptop several weeks earlier.

Oct 28, 2016: Perkins Coie pays $365,275 to Fusion GPS, paying a total of $1,024,408 to Fusion GPS between May 24, 2016 and Dec 28, 2016. || Source: Bank records requested by House Intel Committee unsealed by DC District Judge Richard Leon Nov 21, 2017

Oct 30, 2016: FBI finds 650,000 Clinton emails on computer belonging to Anthony Weiner, apparently 'synched' from estranged wife and Hillary assistant Huma Abedin's computer. FBI fails to coordinate separate investigations of Clinton Foundation financial crimes and Clinton misappropriation of classified material (a felony), stopping disclosure and audit.

Oct 31, 2016: An article in Mother Jones by David Corn refers to Steele's providing FBI with 'memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist Trump.' Minority Leader Senator Harry Reid sends a public letter to FBI Director Comey urging release of these memos Steele had written.

Oct 31, 2016: Slate publishes article by Franklin Foer on allegations of communication between the Trump Organization and Alfa-Bank. Immediately following publication, DNC lawyer Marc Elias sends the article to Clinton campaign officials John Podesta, Jake Sullivan, Robby Mook, and Jan Palmieri. || Source: Sussman trial record

November 1, 2016: Steele admits to FBI handler Michael Gaeta that he had spoken to the reporter who wrote the October 31 article, contrary to FBI Confidential Human Source (CHS) rules. Gaeta describes Steele’s actions and attitude 'one of the craziest' he had seen in two decades of handling sources.

Nov 6, 2016: FBI Director Comey tells Congress that Clinton emails on Anthony Weiner computer do not change earlier conclusion that she should not be charged, because there is no evidence of 'intention' to compromise national security.

Late Oct or early Nov 2016: Washington Post publishes article alleging CIA gave 'eyes-only' information to President Obama detailing specific instructions from Russian President Putin to disrupt the U.S. election to damage Clinton's candidacy and assist in the election of Trump; this information allegedly drawn from sources close to President Putin. Mary Jacoby surmises that her husband, Fusion GPS Founder Glenn Simpson, and not CIA spies in the Kremlin, is the actual source of the CIA 'information'.

Nov 8, 2016: Donald Trump elected President.

§6. Notes On The Insurance Policy, July 2016 - January 2017