BabyBoomer50s
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No, Hillary isn’t going to jail LoL. But this WSJ piece is still an amusing and ironic summary of how the infamous Russia Collusion Hoax that Democratic partisans and their media allies peddled relentlessly for four years blew up in their faces. 
Enjoy…
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Hillary Clinton’s Russian Helpers
Durham uncovers evidence of Moscow’s attempts to influence the Steele dossier.
Special counsel John Durham’s indictments have turned any number of narratives on their heads, including the question of which 2016 presidential campaign was in bed with Russians. It wasn’t Donald Trump’s .
For five years, that’s been the story line. The original claim was that Russians had “cultivated” Mr. Trump as an asset and held blackmail evidence over his head. When those over-the-top accusations fell apart, Democrats shifted to arguing that Mr. Trump and his associates had secretly colluded with the Kremlin to win the election. The press strove mightily to unearth nefarious Trump campaign contacts with Russians, though it came up with little of substance.
Contrast this to the many Russians routinely interacting with Hillary Clinton campaign contractors and surrogates, as documented by Mr. Durham’s latest indictment. Only one of them is the defendant, Igor Danchenko, the Russian national who turns out to have been the primary source for the Steele dossier, and whom Mr. Durham now charges with lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Think on that: The Clinton campaign ultimately paid a Russian to gin up the core allegations against Mr. Trump. The means by which that money flowed are convoluted, though the indictment makes the connections. It notes the Clinton campaign paid its law firm, which paid the opposition-research firm Fusion GPS, which paid Christopher Steele, who “retained Danchenko as a contractor.” Whether or not Mrs. Clinton was aware of any of this, there is no question her campaign got a Russian assist.
Mr. Danchenko, meanwhile, got a lot of his information from other Russians, including a Russian “sub-source” who the indictment notes was a supporter of Mrs. Clinton. This subsource at one point asks a Clinton surrogate to “[T]ell her please she [Clinton] has a big fan in [Country-1]” (bracketed text in original), and in an email to a Russian associate lays out her hopes for a job in a Clinton administration State Department. Again, more Russians providing information that fueled an FBI investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s opponent.
Mr. Danchenko also obtained dossier dirt from a Clinton surrogate, public-relations executive Charles Dolan. The indictment delves into Mr. Dolan’s own deep and extensive ties with the Russian government. It notes he “spent much of his career” with a focus on Russia. That included helping handle from 2006 to 2014 “global public relations for the Russian government.”
The indictment also lays out Mr. Dolan’s frequent interaction with senior Russians in the lead-up to the 2016 election. As part of a planned October conference in Moscow, Mr. Dolan “attended at least three meetings at the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and communicated with Russian Embassy staff, including Russian Ambassador-1 and Russian-Diplomat-1.” He also communicated with the press secretary and deputy press secretary in the Kremlin.
The indictment even includes Mr. Dolan’s suspicions about Mr. Danchenko’s background. In a June 2016 email to an acquaintance he writes: “He is too young for KGB. But I think he worked for FSB”—the KGB’s postcommunist successor. “Since he told me he spent two years in Iran. And when I first met him he knew more about me than I did. [winking emoticon].”
Despite these suspicions, Mr. Dolan worked with Mr. Danchenko and both attended that October conference, which “featured several Russian government officials,” including from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The indictment notes “participants also attended meetings in the Kremlin.” This indictment revelation is pointedly followed by the following: “According to PR Executive-1”—Mr. Dolan—“individuals affiliated with the Clinton Campaign did not direct, and were not aware of” his meetings with Russian nationals.
Maybe not, but the indictment clearly spells out the danger of two people engaged with the dossier being so mixed up with senior Russians. It accuses Mr. Danchenko of lying to the FBI when he claimed that he’d never told any of his friends, associates or subsources that he was working for Mr. Steele. It includes evidence showing Mr. Danchenko had informed Mr. Dolan, his subsource and “acquaintances based in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia.”
This matters, the indictment says, because the revelation of his work could “affect the likelihood that other individuals—including hostile foreign intelligence services—would learn of and attempt to influence” the dossier. In other words, the indictment lays out the possibility that Russians were aware of the dossier and using it to sow disinformation.
Mr. Danchenko pleaded not guilty this week, and his lawyer, Mark Schamel, issued a statement calling the indictment “a false narrative designed to humiliate and slander a renowned expert in business intelligence.” In response to a Veterans Day email seeking further comment, Mr. Schamel wrote: “In trial.” An attorney for Mr. Dolan didn’t respond to a request for comment.
We can’t know what the Kremlin’s goal was in 2016, or how much it accomplished. But the Danchenko indictment is making clear that this is a far more complex narrative than simply “Putin helped Trump.” Mrs. Clinton’s campaign carries its own Russian baggage.
Enjoy…——————————-
Hillary Clinton’s Russian Helpers
Durham uncovers evidence of Moscow’s attempts to influence the Steele dossier.
Special counsel John Durham’s indictments have turned any number of narratives on their heads, including the question of which 2016 presidential campaign was in bed with Russians. It wasn’t Donald Trump’s .
For five years, that’s been the story line. The original claim was that Russians had “cultivated” Mr. Trump as an asset and held blackmail evidence over his head. When those over-the-top accusations fell apart, Democrats shifted to arguing that Mr. Trump and his associates had secretly colluded with the Kremlin to win the election. The press strove mightily to unearth nefarious Trump campaign contacts with Russians, though it came up with little of substance.
Contrast this to the many Russians routinely interacting with Hillary Clinton campaign contractors and surrogates, as documented by Mr. Durham’s latest indictment. Only one of them is the defendant, Igor Danchenko, the Russian national who turns out to have been the primary source for the Steele dossier, and whom Mr. Durham now charges with lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Think on that: The Clinton campaign ultimately paid a Russian to gin up the core allegations against Mr. Trump. The means by which that money flowed are convoluted, though the indictment makes the connections. It notes the Clinton campaign paid its law firm, which paid the opposition-research firm Fusion GPS, which paid Christopher Steele, who “retained Danchenko as a contractor.” Whether or not Mrs. Clinton was aware of any of this, there is no question her campaign got a Russian assist.
Mr. Danchenko, meanwhile, got a lot of his information from other Russians, including a Russian “sub-source” who the indictment notes was a supporter of Mrs. Clinton. This subsource at one point asks a Clinton surrogate to “[T]ell her please she [Clinton] has a big fan in [Country-1]” (bracketed text in original), and in an email to a Russian associate lays out her hopes for a job in a Clinton administration State Department. Again, more Russians providing information that fueled an FBI investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s opponent.
Mr. Danchenko also obtained dossier dirt from a Clinton surrogate, public-relations executive Charles Dolan. The indictment delves into Mr. Dolan’s own deep and extensive ties with the Russian government. It notes he “spent much of his career” with a focus on Russia. That included helping handle from 2006 to 2014 “global public relations for the Russian government.”
The indictment also lays out Mr. Dolan’s frequent interaction with senior Russians in the lead-up to the 2016 election. As part of a planned October conference in Moscow, Mr. Dolan “attended at least three meetings at the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and communicated with Russian Embassy staff, including Russian Ambassador-1 and Russian-Diplomat-1.” He also communicated with the press secretary and deputy press secretary in the Kremlin.
The indictment even includes Mr. Dolan’s suspicions about Mr. Danchenko’s background. In a June 2016 email to an acquaintance he writes: “He is too young for KGB. But I think he worked for FSB”—the KGB’s postcommunist successor. “Since he told me he spent two years in Iran. And when I first met him he knew more about me than I did. [winking emoticon].”
Despite these suspicions, Mr. Dolan worked with Mr. Danchenko and both attended that October conference, which “featured several Russian government officials,” including from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The indictment notes “participants also attended meetings in the Kremlin.” This indictment revelation is pointedly followed by the following: “According to PR Executive-1”—Mr. Dolan—“individuals affiliated with the Clinton Campaign did not direct, and were not aware of” his meetings with Russian nationals.
Maybe not, but the indictment clearly spells out the danger of two people engaged with the dossier being so mixed up with senior Russians. It accuses Mr. Danchenko of lying to the FBI when he claimed that he’d never told any of his friends, associates or subsources that he was working for Mr. Steele. It includes evidence showing Mr. Danchenko had informed Mr. Dolan, his subsource and “acquaintances based in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia.”
This matters, the indictment says, because the revelation of his work could “affect the likelihood that other individuals—including hostile foreign intelligence services—would learn of and attempt to influence” the dossier. In other words, the indictment lays out the possibility that Russians were aware of the dossier and using it to sow disinformation.
Mr. Danchenko pleaded not guilty this week, and his lawyer, Mark Schamel, issued a statement calling the indictment “a false narrative designed to humiliate and slander a renowned expert in business intelligence.” In response to a Veterans Day email seeking further comment, Mr. Schamel wrote: “In trial.” An attorney for Mr. Dolan didn’t respond to a request for comment.
We can’t know what the Kremlin’s goal was in 2016, or how much it accomplished. But the Danchenko indictment is making clear that this is a far more complex narrative than simply “Putin helped Trump.” Mrs. Clinton’s campaign carries its own Russian baggage.
