If anyone thought the Russia Gate affair was over after the President approved the release of the Nunes memo from the House Committee on Intelligence they were sadly mistaken. First came the report on the now debunked Steele Dossier, then came report of a second Dossier, and now reports suggest the CIA was involved in an anti-Trump scandal of their own.
James Risen of The Intercept first broke the story of the CIA and the New York Times was quick to pick it up. He explains why this story is much harder to report in a concise and simple way:
“It’s a very complicated story,” Risen told CBSN. “First, the CIA and the NSA were trying to recover stolen NSA documents that allow people to do very sophisticated hacks, and they were worried that those documents would allow for really horrible hacks of American systems. So that was their main focus, was to try to buy back documents from the Russians on that. And in this process of conducting a secret channel with the Russians, some of the Russians began to offer documents related to Trump and to the 2016 campaign. And the Americans were very ambivalent about whether they wanted to get these documents because they know how explosive this whole issue is.”
What is known for sure is that American spies negotiated for months with a shadowy Russian who in turned bilked them and the U.S. Government out of $100,000 with promises of stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons. As an added bonus the unnamed Russian operative claimed to have a compromising video tape of the President engaged with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room.
If such a video existed it would support claims made in the Steele dossier financed by the Clinton campaign and DNC. As with everything else that has surfaced over the last year concerning Trump and Russia, the Russian operative had no such proof to offer.
To their credit, U.S. intelligence officials came to doubt the existence of the video and other information about Trump the Russian offered.
In spite of confirmation of the original deal, the CIA has been quick to deny any such effort was made. Dean Boyd, a CIA spokesman told The Daily Caller News Foundation:
“The people swindled here were [Intercept reporter] James Risen and [New York Times reporter] Matt Rosenberg. The fictional story that CIA was bilked out of $100,000 is patently false.”
Why the CIA denied something that is so readily verifiable can only be left to conjecture.
The theft of the NSA’s secret hacking tools has been devastating to the agency, and the agency was struggling to recover what was missing. Instead of providing those hacking tools, the Russian offered fabricated information involving the President and others.
True or not this should serve as a cautionary tale to those who are fishing for their own foregone conclusions. Consider the following headlines about the CIA story, one from a conservative and reliable news source and the other from a left-leaning one.
The CIA Was Just CAUGHT Red Handed Selling Trump Secrets to Russians – enVolve This week
CIA Gave $100k To Russian Offering Dirt On Trump, Including The Sex Video – The Daily Caller
A Newsweek article covering the same story gave a brief and accurate introduction to the $100,000 affair but then immediately launched into a lengthy bit on how Russia may have tried to influence the election in Trump’s favor repeating assertions that have never been verified:
Multiple intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election in a bid to help secure Trump’s victory. According to a notorious dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and in part-funded by the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, Russia has compromising information with which to blackmail Trump. ~ Newsweek
This latest revelation involving the CIA and Russia leaves with a number of uncertainties. What is not known includes:
- Whether these secret channels aided the U.S. in recovering anything stolen from the NSA.
- If the Russian operatives have been acting independently or on the behalf of the Russian government.
- If Moscow is working to discredit Trump or the efforts by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Trump’s possible ties to Russia.
What is certain is that the mainstream media has aided and abetted Democrats in furthering a narrative that has no foundation in proven fact.
~ American Liberty Report
