Generally I would not refer so strongly to a prior discussion thread if the latest information did not absolutely confirm what was originally suspected.

On January 10th, 2017 we discussed “The Anatomy of a Modern Political Smear“, where we connected the dots, as they were happening in-real-time between James Comey, the Obama intelligence community and the media, specifically CNN. {Please See Here}

Yesterday, two events happened which absolutely confirm -with demonstrable certainty- what we immediately saw over 15 months ago. The first event was the appearance of James Comey on CNN to discuss his book. In part of the questioning by Jake Tapper, Comey admitted his January 6th briefing of the Steele Dossier content was ONLY about the Russian hookers, pee-tapes, and ridiculous sexual accusations against the President-elect. [CNN Transcript]:

TAPPER: So, let’s talk about the investigation and what you can talk about it. In January, 2017 when you met with President Trump and you did that oral presentation of what’s in that two page memo, summarizing the Steele dossier. We know from the book that you talked about these unverified allegations involving him and prostitutes. Did you brief him about any — any of the other things in the Steele dossier, claims that his associates, Michael Cohen or Paul Manafort, were potentially working with the Russians? Or was it only about the prostitutes? COMEY: It was only about the salacious part of it. TAPPER: Why? Why only about that? COMEY: Because that was the part that the leaders of the intelligence community agreed he needed to be told about because we knew it and thought it was about to become public. And if it was true, we didn’t know whether it was true, it would be important to let him know this as part of a defensive briefing. (link)

The second event, was the actual release of the Comey memo describing that January 6th, 2017, briefing as directed by “the leaders of the intelligence community”. We now know exactly who was giving that instruction:

That’s the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper.

So, exactly as we anticipated in January of 2017, the entire briefing of the President was a set-up to create a media narrative. After affirming that Comey carried out the objective, James Clapper then leaked the salacious details of the story to CNN. CNN then ran with the story using the hook of ‘the president has been briefed on this material’ etc.

Immediately thereafter, literally hours later, Buzzfeed published the Clinton-Steele Dossier under the auspices of it being newsworthy because CNN was now reporting on it.

This was transparently a set-up at the time we saw it happening, and the current releases of information confirm exactly that. The intelligence apparatus, namely DNI James Clapper and FBI Director James Comey, conspired to weaponize false intelligence in order to create a media narrative that would damage the incoming president and his administration. There is no other way to look at these events.

The reason we know James Clapper (DNI) and John Brennan (CIA), not James Comey, was the structured leak to CNN was specifically because CNN made a subtle mistake. On January 10th, 2017, CNN claimed the intelligence briefing included giving President Trump a two-page document:

[…] The two-page synopsis also included allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government, according to two national security officials. […] CNN has confirmed that the synopsis was included in the documents that were presented to Mr. Trump (link)

…However, we know from James Comey’s memo and his own statements about the briefing there were no documents provided. That means the two national security officials that were leaking details to CNN, and made the mistake about Comey giving Trump the documents, were John Brennan and James Clapper.

As Michael Horowitz investigates the Comey memos, and their subsequent leaking to Daniel Richman, there’s a strong possibility this connection will be made by his investigative unit. Heck, if not, they just read it right here.

Additionally, at the time media were fixated on President Trump’s push-back against the media reports of the dossier specifically because President-elect Trump was focused on the ‘Pee-tape” aspect. We now know the reason for that perspective was simply because Comey never briefed the President-Elect on any other part. He only discussed the Russian hookers, and ridiculous nonsense.

Again, back to the not-so-subtle errors in the January 10th, 2017, CNN report, because they were relaying information from Clapper and Brennan:

[…] The two-page synopsis also included allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government, according to two national security officials. (link)

No, actually, President-elect Trump was never briefed on “Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.” James Comey, stated he never mentioned anything except the Russian hookers and pee-pee nonsense. So again, CNN was reporting on what Clapper and Brennan thought Comey had done and they were getting some of the more nuanced details incorrect.

This entire set-up is particularly Machiavellian when you look at what DNI James Clapper was saying publicly at the time. Remember this release:

Publicly DNI James Clapper is saying the next day (Jan 11th) the intelligence community does not have any confirmation as to the reliability of the Clinton-Steele dossier. Yet the previous day Clapper was leaking details of that dossier to CNN.

Lastly, and perhaps more consequentially, remember the FBI used the dossier to get the FISA warrant against Carter Page on October 21st, 2016 claiming to the FISA court the information therein was reliable. However, the DNI is saying three months later the dossier is NOT reliable.

Bastards.

All.Of.Them.

Timeline:

♦ January 10th, 2017 – CNN Frames “Russian Narrative” – The anatomy of a media smear (link).

♦ January 11th, 2017 – President Trump confronts CNN – “You are fake news” (link)

♦ January 12th, 2017 – Confronted by the Trump Transition Team, independent NBC and Fox News Reporting, CNN’s Anderson Cooper attempts to defend CNN Propaganda (link)

♦ January 15th, 2017 – Bob Woodward calls out CNN, Jake Tapper, John Brennan and James Clapper for false statements and indefensible politicization of institutional U.S. intelligence agencies (link)

In essence the week beginning January 10th, 2017 was the origin of the vast ‘Muh Russia’ conspiracy/collusion narrative against the incoming administration. The CNN report pushed by Jake Tapper was the distribution of leaked information from James Clapper and John Brennan. This false narrative was specifically the origin of the “collusion” angle.