Timeline of U.S. Political Transformation, 6b

§6b. The Insurance Policy, Post-Election, Nov 2016 - Jan 2017

May 29, 2022

The insurance policy — an FBI counter-intelligence investigation of candidate Donald Trump, premised on allegations of collusion with Russia — continues throughout the post-election transition period and the first four months of the Trump Presidency, authorized by FISA warrants issued by what the FISA Court later determined to be false assertions made by the FBI.

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.

Nov 17, 2016: FBI agent Gaeta reports Steele's misbehavior to superiors including Bill Priestap. FBI terminates Steele for revealing his FBI relationship to reporters. Steele continues to provide information to FBI through DOJ Attorney Bruce Ohr. Ohr meets FBI on 13 occasions between Nov 17, 2016 and May 15, 2017, to provide information from Steele and maintain continuing contact with him despite his termination as a CHS. Source: DOJ IG Horowitz Report, p 7.

Nov 17, 2016: NSA Dir Adm Mike Rogers meets with President-elect Trump at Trump Tower in NY, informs him of FBI and DOJ surveillance of his email and phone communications.

Nov 18, 2016: Trump appoints Michael Flynn National Security Adviser.

Nov 2016: Steele gives copies of his dossier to longtime Clinton friend Strobe Talbot to convey to top State Department officials. Additional information from a foreign source, previously unpublished, is supplied to Steele by State Dept staff, probably Johnathan Winer. Source: Letter of Senator Grassley to DAG Rosenstein 2018.2.5, referring Steele for potential violation of 18 U.S.C.§1001.

Nov 18, 2016: Arizona Sen. John McCain and a former assistant, David Kramer, are told about the existence of the dossier by an associate of Steele’s, former British diplomat Sir Andrew Wood.

Nov 27, 2016: National Security Advisor Susan Rice requests British GCHQ to renew spy operation on President-Elect Trump, following Aug 2016 GCHQ spy operation on candidate Trump. || Source

Nov. 28, 2016: Sen McCain associate David Kramer flies to London to meet Christopher Steele for a briefing on the anti-Trump research. Afterward, Fusion GPS' Glenn Simpson gives Sen McCain a copy of the dossier.

Dec 5, 2016: FBI analysts recognize it is not a 'logical investigative step' to seek General Flynn’s financial records and that 'this is a nightmare'. Source: District Court filing in Criminal Action No. 17-232-EGS, Sept 24, 2020

Dec 6, 2016: President Obama orders CIA Dir Brennan to prepare an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) integrating the views of all 17 intelligence agencies on Trump-Russia collusion, to be completed before President-Elect Trump's inauguration Jan 20, 2017. Washington Post, New York Times, and other media report ICA findings three days later.

Dec 9, 2016: McCain provides a copy of the Steele dossier to FBI Director James Comey during a meeting at the latter’s office. McCain had received the dossier from his aide David Kramer, who had received it from Fusion GPS owner Glenn Simpson. This route of transmission informs McCain the dossier is opposition research and not official intelligence. Former British Ambassador to Russia Andrew Wood, urged by his friend Christopher Steele, had advised McCain in early Dec 2016 of the contents of the dossier.

Dec 9, 2016: Washington Post (Entous-Nakashima-Miller) writes 'CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system'. New York Times (Sanger-Shane) writes 'American intelligence agencies have concluded with ‘high confidence’ that Russia acted covertly in the latter stages of the presidential campaign to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances and promote Donald J. Trump'.

Dec 9, 2016: CIA tells Congress that they believe the Russians hacked the DNC to help defeat Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Dec 10, 2016: An associate of Republican Sen John McCain gives BuzzFeed a copy of the Steele dossier.

Dec 12, 2016: Intelligence professionals dispute claim that DNC was 'hacked', as electronic signature missing; physical transmittal more likely. || Source

Dec 2016: President Obama finalizes with Executive Order 12333 rules opening raw, unedited information feeds collected by the National Security Agency to all of the 16 other agencies in the Intelligence Community before any privacy protections are implemented, giving 17 spy agencies unimpeded access to all Americans' private information, regardless of whether they are suspected of anything. • FBI obtains confidential Trump Transition Team records. || Source: Senate HSGA and Finance Majority Staff Report, 2018

Dec 14, 2016: NBC broadcasts 'Russian President Vladimir Putin became personally involved in the covert Russian campaign to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News'. New York Times and Washington Post publish similar stories.

Dec 14, 2016: House Permanent Special Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) Chair Rep Devin Nunes responds to media stories by requesting asking CIA Dir Brennan 'to clarify press reports that the CIA has a new assessment that it has not shared with us. The Committee is deeply concerned that intransigence in sharing intelligence with Congress can enable the manipulation of intelligence for political purposes'. ICA appears to include only CIA, FBI, NSA, DNI, not all 17 intelligence agencies. || Source

Late Dec 2016: ICA completed, concludes with 'high confidence' that Russian Govt interfered with 2016 election to assist Trump.

Dec 28, 2016: President Obama signs Executive Order 13757 applying aditional sanctions to Russia for its alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

Dec 28, 2016: National Security Advisor-designate Michael Flynn talks with Russian Ambassador Kislyak by telephone. The FBI wiretaps and records these conversations. FBI and other spy agencies perform 30,355 searches of 5,288 Americans during 2016.

Dec 30, 2016: Russian President Putin announces Russia would not retaliate against the sanctions imposed by President Obama.

Dec 31, 2016: Ambassador Kislyak calls Flynn to advise him Russia will not retaliate against Obama's recent sanctions.

2017: Bohai Harvest, an investment company 10%-owned by Hunter Biden, participates in face-recognition company Face++'s $460 million public offering. China uses the company's products for surveillance of Uiguhrs and other minorities detained in concentration camps and elsewhere. || Source

Jan 2, 2017: Wikileaks' Assange says he guarantees emails did not come from Russia; that Obama administration is trying to undermine Trump

Jan 3, 2017: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, 'You take on the intelligence community -- they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you.' This warning or threat proved to be prescient.

Early Jan 2017: FBI renews FISA warrant to spy on Carter Page. FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates again sign the application. Britain's national security adviser sends letter to outgoing National Security Advisor Susan Rice and NSA-designate Flynn, disavowing former British Secret Service Agent Christopher Steele, calls his credibility into question, and declares him untrustworthy. Flynn later states he does not remember this letter.

Jan 2017: Clinton campaign manager and lobbyist John Podesta meets with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson to consider further anti-Trump research. Podesta later (Oct 2017) tells Senate Intel Committee he knows nothing about an arrangement to pay for anti-Trump research, despite his role as Clinton campaign manager and DNC fund-raiser.

Jan 4, 2017: FBI Washington field office issues official Closing Memorandum, closes its investigation of Michael Flynn, finds 'no derogatory information' on Flynn, and no basis to 'predicate further investigative efforts' into whether Flynn was being directed and controlled by a foreign power (Russia) in a manner that threatened U.S. national security or violated FARA or its related statutes. || Source: Memorandum disclosed in April 2020 pursuant to Flynn attorney Sidney Powell's requests for all exculpatory information required under Brady rules, and U.S. Attorney Jensen's response providing it.

Jan 5, 2017: Comey testifies to Senate Intelligence Committee that DNC refused multiple requests to examine their servers after Russian-hacking allegations. Separately, DNC denies having refused requests to examine server, claims FBI never made any such requests.

Jan 5, 2017: Comey, Brennan, Clapper, Obama, Biden, Sally Yates, Susan Rice meet in Oval Office to consider what to disclose to President-Elect Trump, and what to withhold. They must appear to cooperate with the transition while not disclosing that Trump has been and still is the actual target of FBI investigation. All those in this Oval Office meeting being subject to embarrassing exposure and possible prosecution -- for fraudulent allegations Trump was involved in a treasonous plot to collude with Russia, based on one fabricated DNC-funded dossier -- they discuss what must be done to prevent discovery by the incoming administration.

Comey advises removing Flynn, who as National Security Adviser would review the FBI's illegal Russia collusion investigation. Comey cautions against alerting Flynn, and advises not discussing Russia with him, on the grounds that Flynn is a national security risk due to his many conversations with Russian Ambassador Kislyak. While Comey does not indicate how he intends to remove Flynn, handwritten notes by FBI agent Priestap suggest 'getting him to lie' (which would be a crime). Biden asks whether the Logan Act could be used, apparently unaware it is only applicable to private citizens and since enactment in 1799 has never been used successfully. Obama instructs those present to inform incoming Trump Administration, while excluding information about previous and continuing secret espionage against Trump.

Strzok texts 'Don't do it yet [meaning don't close the Flynn case]'. Having been informed by Strzok that the FBI case against Flynn is not officially closed despite finding 'no derogatory information', Comey keeps the investigation open. Strzok texts that this mistake is 'serendipitously good' and 'our utter incompetence actually helps us'. Texts between unidentified FBI agents: 'people here are scrambling for info to support certain things and its a mad house'. '[J]esus, [T]rump was right. [S]till not put together… why do we do this to ourselves. [W]hat is wrong with these people?' || Source

Jan 6, 2017: CIA Director Brennan releases declassified version of Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) ordered by President Obama on Dec 6, 2016. While purporting to be the consensus of 17 intelligence agencies on Russian collusion with the Trump campaign to rig the 2016 election, only CIA, FBI, and DNI efforts are included. NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers dissents from the ICA conclusion. The ICA report concludes 'Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him'. To protect 'sources and methods', proof is not supplied. Conclusions echo those provided by Brennan to Washington Post, New York Times, and NBC during the Dec 9 - 14, 2016 period. Later, on Aug 19, 2018, Brennan states on TV he had no evidence of Russian collusion with Trump as of the date he left CIA. || Source

Jan 6, 2017: Comey, Clapper, Brennan and Mike Rogers meet President-elect Trump in Trump Tower to brief him on the Intelligence Community Assessment of Russian election interference. The ICA consists of conclusions and inferences without specifications of overt acts by identifiable individuals. Separately, as planned, Comey asks for a one-on-one briefing with President-elect. Comey tells Trump of the 'salacious' Clinton-fabricated allegations, such as the hiring of Russian prostitutes to urinate on a bed in a Moscow hotel that former President Obama had slept in. DNI Dir Clapper had previously briefed Jake Tapper of CNN on these fabrications. Comey's briefing omits any mention of the origin of the Steele dossier as DNC-paid opposition research (implying that it was an official intelligence report), and also omits its use to obtain FISA warrants, implying that Trump is not an object of the FBI's counterintelligence investigation. Comey also conceals from Trump the fact that National Security Adviser-designate Flynn is under FBI investigation. Surveillance of Trump staff continues under active (undisclosed) FISA warrant authorizations. || Source

Jan 6, 2017: Comey reports in a memo to Clapper 'I said I wasn’t saying this was true, only that I wanted him to know both that it had been reported and that the reports were in many hands. I said media like CNN had them and were looking for a news hook'. Comey's briefing of Trump supplies the news hook.

Jan 7, 2017: Clapper and two other Obama administration officials request Flynn unmasking (access to Flynn's communications incidentally retrieved by FISA-authorized spying on Flynn's associates in the Trump campaign).

Jan 7, 2017: FBI interviews Steele’s primary sub-source, Igor Danchenko, who disavows much of the Russia collusion evidence attributed to him in the dossier. FBI omits this disavowal in its FISA warrant applications. 'The government did not disclose that Steele himself had undercut the reliability' of his own source, telling the FBI he was a 'boaster' and an 'egoist' and 'may engage in some embellishment.' Source: FISC Chief Judge James Boasberg order.

January 9, 2017: Obama administration NIH Director Francis Collins lifts funding moratorium on 'gain-of-function' research to give SARS bat viruses a 'spike protein' precisely adapted to human ACE2 (angiostatin-converting enzyme) receptors, a design suited for use as a bio-weapon, without informing U.S. national security officials.

Jan 10, 2017: CNN reports Comey's Jan 6 briefing of Trump on Steele dossier. Citing that reporting as justification, BuzzFeed publishes the Steele dossier. Many FBI agents and analysts purchase taxpayer-funded professional liability insurance to defend probable lawsuits on their illegal activities. || Source

Jan 11, 2017: UN Ambassador Samantha Power makes another Flynn unmasking request.

Jan 12, 2017: FBI renews FISA warrant to spy on Carter Page, falsely stating that Steele’s information was still reliable because previous information he had reported to the FBI had been verified and used in criminal proceedings; and omitting information received by FBI in Nov and Dec 2016 undermining Steele's credibility and trustworthiness. FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates again sign the application. Britain's national security adviser sends letter to outgoing National Security Advisor Susan Rice and NSA-designate Flynn, disavowing former British Secret Service Agent Christopher Steele, calls his credibility into question, and declares him untrustworthy. Flynn later states he does not remember this letter.

Jan 12, 2017: Obama administration finalizes new rules under Executive Order 12333 allowing NSA to distribute raw intel to other U.S. intel agencies without normal privacy protections, removing longstanding restrictions on access to contents of phone calls and email, including bulk collection of satellite transmissions, communications between foreigners as they cross network switches in the United States, and messages acquired overseas or provided by allies. || Source1 , Source2 , Source3

Jan 12, 2017: Vice President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew request Flynn unmasking in intelligence communications.

Jan 12, 2017: Washington Post, David Ignatius, publishes information leaked either by Obama Admin officials or by Stephen Halper, about phone calls between Russian Ambassador Kislyak and General Flynn. The article mentions the Logan Act, a 1799 law prohibiting private individuals from discussing foreign policy with foreign governments. The Logan Act has never been successfully used and is inapplicable to Flynn as a designated public official.

Jan 2017: Assistant Director of FBI Counterintelligence Division Bill Priestap writes handwritten note for meeting to plan an 'ambush interview' with Flynn: 'What is our goal? Truth/admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?' Source: document disclosed in April 2020, in response to Flynn attorney Powell's request for Brady-required exculpatory material.

Jan 15 2017: VP Pence on CBS Face the Nation, in response to question 'Did any advisor or anybody in the Trump campaign have any contact with the Russians who were trying to meddle in the election?' states 'Of course not. And I think to suggest that is to give credence to some of these bizarre rumors that have swirled around the candidacy.' Transcript

Jan 15, 2017: Bob Woodward calls Steele dossier 'garbage'. || Source

Jan 19, 2017: State Dept European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland sends classified materials on Russia investigation to Senators Warner, Corker, and Cardin. Transmittal message 'We made the deadline!' indicates urgency to provide information on Russian election-interference, anti-EU, and anti-NATO activities in Europe, before Trump is to be inaugurated as President the following day. || Source

Jan 20, 2017: Susan Rice writes a memo to herself about Obama 'continuing to do everything by the book' with regard to the Flynn investigation. The word 'continuing' suggests Obama had already known about the FBI plan to 'get Flynn to lie'.

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