Spygate, Part #4: Foreign Intelligence
One of the most under-discussed aspects of Spygate is foreign intelligence, even though simultaneously people are fully aware of the British influence over the 2016 United States presidential election.
There were, in fact, numerous foreign countries involved in affecting the 2016 United States presidential election, all of which have been — essentially — radio silent since Donald Trump won the election on November 8, 2016.
The countries include:
- Australia
- Estonia
- France
- Germany
- Latvia (technically)
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
More specifically on the above, it was Australia, Estonia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom that specifically aided United States intelligence agencies, from late 2015 onward.
“GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious ‘interactions’ between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents, a source close to UK intelligence said. This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added.
Over the next six months, until summer 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trump’s inner circle and Russians, sources said.”
This would suggest that intelligence gathering took place over the course of six months, and Summer is classified as June, July and August in the United Kingdom. Therefore, one could assume the months as either November 2015 — May 2016, or December 2015 — June 2016.
But what, exactly, did they do?
Australia
The leader of Australia during the 2016 United States Presidential election was Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, having ascended to the position on September 15, 2015 as the leader of the Liberal Party.
In 1956, Australia — alongside New Zealand — were both added to the newly expanded UKUSA Agreement, which extended intelligence co-operation to those two countries with the current members of the agreement — United Kingdom, United States and Canada — which formed the alliance known as “Five Eyes”.
Many years later, on February 22, 2006, Alexander Downer and Bill Clinton signed a memorandum of understanding to spread grant money over the course of four years to a project to provide screening and drug treatment to AIDS patients in Asia as part of the Clinton Foundation.
On August 17, 2009, Nicholas Warner became the Director General of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.
On October 18, 2010, Downer attended the 5th William Pitt Seminar with Stefan Halper, Robert Cooper and Brendan Simms.
Years later, in 2011, Downer became a member of Huawei’s Australian Board.
On February 18, 2014, Downer was announced as Australia’s next High Commissioner to London, where he would replace Mike Rann.
In May 2014, Downer resigned from his position on the advisory board at Hakluyt & Co., when he was officially appointed as Australia’s High Commissioner to London.
In November 2015, Downer attended a 2-day country retreat at the invitation of the private intelligence organisation Hakluyt & Co., followed by a cocktail soiree hosted by the same company at the Orangery in Kensington Palace.
Between March 7–13, 2016, Director James Comey visited Australia and met with Attorney General George Brandis and Justice Minister Michael Keenan.
Three days later, on March 16, Director James Clapper arrived in Australia from New Zealand via a C-17 Globemaster.
On May 10, 2016, at the Kensington Wine Rooms in London, England, Downer met with George Papadopoulos, where Papadopoulos — having been introduced through two intermediaries, Christian Cantor and Erika Thompson — mentioned that Russians had material on Hillary Clinton.
Alexander Downer decided to inform the United States Embassy in London, England about his conversation with Papadopoulos, upon the release of the Democratic National Committee’s e-mails by WikiLeaks on July 22, 2016.
On July 23, 2016, the Australian Government contacted Elizabeth Dibble at the United States Embassy to inform her about Downer and Papadopoulos’s conversation. The information was then transmitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
MARIA BARTIROMO: “You’ve now seen the electronic communication, yes?”
REPRESENTATIVE DEVIN NUNES: “That’s correct. So it took us a long time to actually get this, what’s called the electronic communication, as we know it now for your viewers, what it is it’s the original intelligence, original reasons that the counterintelligence was started.Now this is really important to us because the counterintelligence investigation uses the tools of our intelligence services that are not supposed to be used on American citizens. And we’ve long wanted to know: what intelligence did you have that actually led to this investigation? So what we’ve found now, after the investigators have reviewed it, is that in fact there was no intelligence.
So we have a traditional partnership with what’s called the Five Eyes Agreement. Five Eyes Agreement involves our friends in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, and of course, us. So long time processes and procedures in place where we move intelligence across.
We are not supposed to spy on each others’ citizens. And it’s worked well. And it continues to work well. And we know it’s working well because there was no intelligence that passed through the Five Eyes channels to our government.
And that’s why we had to see that original communication. So now we’re trying to figure out, as you know, we are investigating the State Department, we think there’s some major irregularities in the State Department, and we’re trying to figure out how this information about Mr. Papadopoulos of all people who was supposedly meeting with some folks in London, how that made it over across into the FBI’s hands.”
Crossfire Hurricane was then opened on July 31, 2016 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Two days later, on August 2, 2016, Special Agent Peter Strzok and another agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation met with Downer directly in London to discuss his conversation with Papadopoulos further. Strzok then received reading materials, which he texted about to Lisa Page.
On November 1, 2016, Downer attended the Edmund Burke Award in London, which was also attended by Daniel Hannan, John Howard and Jesse Norman.
On December 18, 2017, Nicholas Warner stepped down from his position as Director General of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service.
On December 30, 2017, Sharon LaFraniere, Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo (with contributions from Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Matthew Rosenberg) published the article “How the Russia Inquiry Began: A Campaign Aide, Drinks and Talk of Political Dirt” in The New York Times.
During a MAGA Rally in Las Vegas, NV on September 21, 2018, when President Donald Trump was interviewed by Sean Hannity, the President mentioned that two foreign governments were attempting to block the declassification of the FISA on Carter Page.
“We’re also dealing with foreign countries that do have a problem, I must tell you. I got called from two very good allies saying ‘please, can we talk?’ So it’s not as simple as all that. And we do have to respect their wishes. But it’ll all come out.” — President Donald Trump
Estonia
The leader of Estonia during the 2016 United States Presidential election was initially Toomas Hendrick Ives, until he was replaced with Kersti Kaljulaid on October 10, 2016.
On October 9, 2006, Toomas Hendrick Ives was officially inaugurated as the 4th President of Estonia.
Years later, on June 3, 2014, Michael Weiss published the article “The Estonian Spymasters” in Foreign Affairs.
On October 13, 2015, Mikk Marran was nominated to the position of Director General of the Estonian Information Board by Defence Minister Hannes Hanso.
On January 1, 2016, Mikk Marran officially became the Director General of the Estonian Information Board.
Between February 12–14, 2016, President Ives attended the 52nd Munich Security Conference, alongside others such as Director James Clapper, Director Robert Hannigan and Robert Bertholee.
On March 14, 2016, Donald Trump tweeted “N.A.T.O. is obsolete and must be changed to additionally focus on terrorism as well as some of the things it is currently focused on!”
It should be noted that Estonia is on the border to Russia, and is considered a threat to Estonian sovereignty by Estonian intelligence.
According to Paul Wood at BBC News, a member of the Baltic States provided a tape to Director John Brennan of the Central Intelligence Agency, which featured a conversation about money transferring from the Kremlin into a United States presidential campaign, provided by an agency of the Baltic States. This led to the creation of numerous task forces under his watch. While this is most likely inaccurate [it may have happened in July / August instead], I have included it for the sake of reference and I will be breaching the topic of Brennan’s Working Group at a later time.
Between May 13–15, 2016, the Lennart Meri Conference was hosted, where it was attended by President Ives, Ian Brzezinski, David Kramer, Kurt Volker and Michael Weiss.
In June 2016, Sergei Skripal visited Estonia and met with intelligence officials at the time.
On July 21, 2016, in response to further criticisms about NATO by Donald Trump, President Ives tweeted “Estonia is 1 of 5 NATO allies in Europe to meet its 2% def expenditures commitment. Fought, with no caveats, in NATO’s sole Art 5 op. in Afg”.
Crossfire Hurricane was then opened on July 31, 2016 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In August 2016, Paul Wood of BBC News spoke with a retired spy, whom said that they had heard about the existence of potential “kompromat” on Donald Trump from the head of an East European intelligence agency.
In the same month, Estonia started to conduct intelligence gathering operations on executives from the Trump Organization whom visited Europe.
“The Western European intelligence operations began in August, after the British government obtained information that people acting on behalf of Russia were in contact with members of the Trump campaign. Those details from the British were widely shared among the NATO allies in Europe. The Baltic nation has been gathering intelligence for at least that long, and has conducted surveillance of executives from the Trump Organization who were traveling in Europe.” — Kurt Eichenwald, Newsweek
The Estonian Information Board conducted intelligence gathering on a meeting which occurred at a building in the Czech Republic maintained by the organisation Rossotrudnichestvo. Specifically, this is the meeting described within the Steele dossier, which allegedly featured Michael Cohen in Prague.
“About that time, according to reports obtained by Western intelligence, a Trump associate met with a pro-Putin member of Russian parliament at a building in Eastern Europe maintained by Rossotrudnichestvo, an agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that is charged with administering language, education and support programs for civilians. While Newsweek could not determine the purpose of the meeting, a Western intelligence official said that surveillance of the meeting was conducted by or on behalf of the Estonian Information Board (EIB), the foreign intelligence service of Estonia.” — Kurt Eichenwald, Newsweek
On August 11, 2016, Director James Clapper visited Estonia.
On September 29, 2016, the CEPA Forum was hosted at the Meridian International Center in Washington, DC, where it was attended by Director General Marran, Michael Weiss and Lawfare’s Benjamin Wittes (a friend of James Comey).
On October 10, 2016, President Ives stepped down as the 4th President of Estonia, being replaced by Kersti Kaljulaid.
On January 10, 2017, BuzzFeed News published the Steele dossier, which led to CNN’s Jake Tapper stating that people investigated the connection between Michael Cohen and Prague, and discovered it was another Cohen with a different year of birth, which he then confirmed through a government source.
“Let me just make one other point, because Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer, er, has been out there because in this uncorroborated report, it talks about Michael Cohen, Trump’s official corporate lawyer, making a trip to the Czech Republic. My reporting suggests that, er, people did try to run that down, and that they concluded that it was a different Michael Cohen. It was a Michael Cohen with a passport from another country, the same birth year, different birth date. So for Michael Cohen to dispute that he was in the Czech Republic completely confirms and conforms with our reporting, and it’s one of the reasons why did not get specific with these allegations, and that’s why I hope at the press conference today people are more general and don’t get into the specifics because a lot of that stuff has not been proven.” — Jake Tapper, CNN
After January 20, 2017, when Donald Trump was officially inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States, the Estonian Information Board continued to gather intelligence on both the Trump Administration and the Trump Organization, which they viewed as essential.
“Moreover, a Baltic nation is gathering intelligence on officials in the Trump White House and executives with the president’s company, the Trump Organization, out of concern that an American policy shift toward Russia could endanger its sovereignty, according to a third person with direct ties to that nation’s government.” — Kurt Eichenwald, Newsweek
“Officials in Western Europe say they are so dismayed, they now feel compelled to gather intelligence on a man who is set to become the next president of the United States. According to a Western intelligence source, at least one allied nation is currently conducting intelligence operations in the United States, collecting details on officials surrounding Trump and executives in his company, the Trump Organization; the source, who works in government, expressed disbelief that such an effort had been deemed essential.” — Kurt Eichenwald, Newsweek
For all we know, this is still happening.
France
The leader of France during the 2016 United States Presidential election was President François Hollande.
On April 10, 2013, Bernard Bajolet became the Director General of the Directorate-General For External Security (DGSE).
On October 27, 2015, Director General Bajolet attended the 2nd The Ethos and the Profession of Intelligence Conference at Georgetown University, which was hosted by the Central Intelligence Agnency, with Director John Brennan, Admiral Michael Rogers, Deputy Director David Cohen, Director James Clapper, Lawfare’s Benjamin Wittes, David Ignatius and John Sawers in attendance. Director Bajolet participated in a panel titled “The Shared 21st Century International Mission” with Director Brennan, Sawers and Yaacov Amidror, which was moderated by Ignatius.
Crossfire Hurricane was then opened on July 31, 2016 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
While I cannot find any specific intelligence passed from the DGSE, I will note the existence of a blog titled Intel Today, where apparently on December 15, 2016, Director General Bajolet delivered a speech at the 7th Strategic Research National Conference at the French National Academy. During the speech, he stated that in December 2015, the DGSE published a document titled “US Presidential Election: Victory of Mr Trump. What are the consequences?”
“The European countries that passed on electronic intelligence — known as sigint — included Germany, Estonia and Poland. Australia, a member of the ‘Five Eyes’ spying alliance that also includes the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, also relayed material, one source said.
Another source suggested the Dutch and the French spy agency, the General Directorate for External Security or DGSE, were contributors.” — The Guardian
Germany
The leader of Germany during the 2016 United States Presidential election was — obviously — Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom was previously spied on by the Obama Administration in 2010.
On December 7, 2011, Gerhard Schindler became the President of the Federal Intelligence Service.
On April 27, 2016, Bruno Kahl was announced as the next President of the Federal Intelligence Service, to replace Gerhard Schindler.
At some point, the Federal Intelligence Service collected intelligence on associates of the Trump Organization — not the Trump campaign — and passed this information over the Central Intelligence Agency, which related to Ziya Mammadov.
“Some details about Trump’s business partners were passed to the American government months ago. For example, long before the president’s inauguration, German electronic surveillance determined that the father of Trump’s Azerbaijani business partner is a government official who laundered money for the Iranian military; that information was shared with the CIA, according to a European source with direct knowledge of the situation.” — Kurt Eichenwald, Newsweek
This information collected by German intelligence was most likely collected before June 4, 2016, as on this date, Jeff Horwitz published the article “Tale of Trump and partner in Azerbaijan real estate project” in The Associated Press, which was specifically about Mammadov.
On July 1, 2016, Kahl officially became the President of the Federal Intelligence Service.
Crossfire Hurricane was then opened on July 31, 2016 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
On November 28, 2016, President Kahl warned people during an interview with Seuddeutsche that Russian interference may be possible in the 2017 German elections, with additional concerns for the rest of Europe.
Latvia
The leader of Latvia during the 2016 United States Presidential election was President Raimonds Vējonis.
In 2010, a number of businessmen, which included Igor Krutoy, visited Riga, Lativa, to scout for locations to plan for a hotel and entertainment complex with Donald Trump. Further to this, in September 2010, David Orowitz, the Senior Vice President For Acquisitions and Development for the Trump Organization, visited Latvia to explore locations, with the island of Zakusala as a likely site for a hotel.
In February 2011, Ainārs Šlesers and Viesturs Koziols discussed the development of Trump Plaza Riga in Zakiski, in a conversation which was recorded by Latvian authorities.
Four months later, in June 2011, Krutoy, Koziols and one other attendee met with Ivanka Trump at Trump Tower in Manhattan, NY to discuss the development of a hotel in Latvia. The three attendees then met with Donald Trump for four hours about the potential for a permanent venue for New Wave. At the same time, the Federal Bureau of Investigation opened the Office of the Legal Attaché in Riga, Lativa.
The next month, in July 2011, Krutoy hosted a press conference in Riga with Šlesers, where he discussed his conversations with Trump about New Wave.
On August 16, 2011, Šlesers discussed his meetings with Trump and Ivanka during an interview with Vipi.
On February 14, 2012, Director Robert Mueller visited Riga and met with Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis, Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis, Justice Minister Gaidis Berzins, State Police Chief General Ints Kuzis and Constitution Protection Bureau Chief Janis Kazocins.
On May 19, 2012, Donald Trump, Jr. was interviewed while he was in Riga.
In February 2014, Latvian authorities requested assistance from the United States with their investigation into the businessmen, including Krutoy, and looked into the recordings of the suspects, which had mentioned Trump by name.
In September 2015, two months after Donald Trump announced his run for the Republican Party nomination, the Federal Bureau of Investigation responded to the Latvian request from February 2014 for assistance into investigating Krutoy, Koziols and Šlesers due to Trump’s involvement.
Crossfire Hurricane was then opened on July 31, 2016 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In August 2016, Paul Wood of BBC News spoke with a retired spy, whom said that they had heard about the existence of potential “kompromat” on Donald Trump from the head of an East European intelligence agency.
In December 2016, the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau ended their investigation into Šlesers, Andris Šķēems and Aivars Lembergs due to a lack of evidence.
Netherlands
The leader of the Netherlands during the 2016 United States Presidential election was Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
In December 2011, Robert Bertholee became the Director General of the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD).
In the summer of 2014, the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) and the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) combined forces to form the Joint Sigint Cyber Unit (JSCU) in Zoetermeer, Netherlands.
Around this time, in mid-2014, the Joint Sigint Cyber Unit penetrated the systems of the organisation “Cozy Bear” and started to monitor them for a year, collecting surveillance footage and pinpointing their location to a university building in Moscow, Russia near Red Square.
As such, during their monitoring of “Cozy Bear”, in November 2014, the Joint Sigint Cyber Unit watched as the Russian hackers penetrated the United States Department of State, to which they alerted the Central Intelligence Agency. After twenty-four hours, the attempted hack had been halted.
In autumn of 2014, the Dutch intelligence services again notified the American intelligence agencies about “Cozy Bear”’s hacks into confidential memos, non-public information about President Barack Obama’s itinerary, and part of his e-mail correspondence.
Dutch intelligence authorities would later notify the American intelligence agencies once again when the organisation “Fancy Bear” gained access to the Washington servers of the Democrat Party. This would culminate with Rob Bertholee and Pieter Bindt discussing the Democratic National Committee hacks with both Director James Clapper and Admiral Michael Rogers.
This may have resulted in the National Security Agency informing the Federal Bureau of Investigation in September 2015 that the computers of the Democratic National Committee had been hacked.
“Johnston didn’t know it, but in September 2015 as he was getting ready to leave the Marines, the NSA informed the FBI that DNC computers had likely been hacked, three sources said. An FBI agent then called the DNC’s IT office and said that the organization’s servers had been compromised.” — BuzzFeed News
Between February 12–14, 2016, Director General Bertholee attended the 52nd Munich Security Conference, alongside others such as Director James Clapper, Director Robert Hannigan and President Toomas Hendrik Ilves.
This information would also be used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election.
On July 1, 2016, Director Anton Šafárik was appointed as the chairman of the Counter Terrorism Group, which is located in the Netherlands, which also opened a shared counter-terrorism intelligence database accessible by all 28 European Union countries, Switzerland and Norway.
Crossfire Hurricane was then opened on July 31, 2016 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Besides the information from the Australians, the investigation was also propelled by intelligence from other friendly governments, including the British and Dutch. A trip to Moscow by another adviser, Carter Page, also raised concerns at the F.B.I..” — The New York Times
“American allies, including the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials — and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin — and associates of President-elect Trump, according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence.” — The New York Times
The Dutch intelligence services would later assist both the British and American intelligence agencies on the “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections” report, as Dutch intelligence had allegedly seen the e-mails from the Democratic National Committee within Russian military intelligence networks.
“According to nearly a dozen people who either attended the meeting with the president-elect or were later briefed on it, the four primary intelligence officials described the streams of intelligence that convinced them of Mr. Putin’s role in the election interference. They included stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee that had been seen in the Russian military intelligence networks by the British, Dutch and American intelligence service.” — The New York Times
In February 2017, Director General Bertholee discussed potential Russian interference in the Netherlands, as he said the Russiand had been attempting to hack into Dutch websites since September 2016.
Poland
The leader of Poland during the 2016 United States Presidential election was President Andrzej Duda.
On February 22, 2016, Colonel Grzegorz Malecki was announced as the next Head of the Foreign Intelligence Agency.
Crossfire Hurricane was then opened on July 31, 2016 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In August 2016, Paul Wood of BBC News spoke with a retired spy, whom said that they had heard about the existence of potential “kompromat” on Donald Trump from the head of an East European intelligence agency.
On September 27, 2016, Colonel Malecki resigned from his position, where he was then replaced by Piotr Krawczyk.
I ultimately cannot find any hints of intelligence passed from Poland to the United States, despite the alleged existence of it.
“The European countries that passed on electronic intelligence — known as sigint — included Germany, Estonia and Poland. Australia, a member of the ‘Five Eyes’ spying alliance that also includes the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand, also relayed material, one source said.” — The Guardian
Ukraine
The leader of Ukraine during the 2016 United States Presidential election was President Petro Poroshenko.
On September 29, 2007, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych pushed to change his identity by claiming to be an anti-corruption reformer wanting to push Ukraine towards the West, with the help of Paul Manafort, Stan Greenberg and Neil Newhouse.
The next day, on September 30, the Ukrainian parliamentary election took place, where Yanukovych and Vyacheslav Kyrylenko lost parliamentary seats, while Yulia Tymoshenko, Petro Symonenko and Volodymyr Lytvyn gained seats, which ultimately led to Yanukovych losing his position as Prime Minister of Ukraine to Tymoshenko.
On February 7, 2010, the run-off for Ukraine’s presidential election was held between Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych, where on February 10, Yanukovych held 48.95% of the vote, while Tymoshenko held 45.47%, leading to Yanukovych being elected as the President of Ukraine on February 14.
The next year, in 2011, Tymoshenko was jailed for abuse of office by the Yanukovych Administration.
Between September 23–25, 2013, Oksana Shulyar, Hendrick Bosshamer and Gabriela Miranda visited Sumy, Ukraine on behalf of the Organization For Economic Cooperation and Development.
On February 4, 2014, Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland and Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt’s private conversation was leaked onto YouTube, where they discussed potential regime change to replace President Yanukovych with Arseniy Yatsenyuk. On February 24, President Yanukovych was dismissed from his office after a vote was held by the Ukrainian Parliament, with an additional decision to release Tymoshenko from prison.
Two days later, on February 24, Yatsenyuk was appointed the Prime Minister of of Ukraine.
Two months later, on April 22, Vice President Joe Biden met with Prime Minister Yatsenyuk to deliver a statement about Russia, the annexation of Crime, and a public backing of Ukraine against Russia in the dispute. Vice President Biden then pledged $50 million in American aid to end Ukraine’s dependency on Russian energy, four days after his son, Hunter, was appointed as director and lawyer of Burisma Holdings Limited, a Ukrainian energy company.
On January 12, 2015, Yanukovych was placed on Interpol’s international wanted list on charges of embezzlement and financial wrongdoing.
On May 13, 2015, a decree was published on the official website of President Petro Poroshenko, which announced Senator John McCain as one of the eight foreign members of a presidential advisory group led by Mikheil Saakashvili, with other members including Carl Bildt, Elmar Brok and Anders Aslund — Senator McCain himself had not agreed to this.
In December 2015, The Diplomat hosted a party for their new logo launch, which was attended by Oksana Shulyar, Ambassador Valeriy Chaly and Podesta Group’s Will Bohlen.
In March 2016, an agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation started to work with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, funded by the United States Embassy’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
In the same month, Alexandra Chalupa, a member of the Ethnic Dems for the Democratic Party, met with Ambassador Chaly and Shulyar at the Ukrainian Embassy to discuss the connections between Paul Manafort and Russia, and Manafort’s potential association with Donald Trump, where Ambassador Chaly stated, while Manafort was known to him, he was not concerned.
Andrii Telizhenko was then instructed by Shulyar to assist Chalupa with her investigations into the connections between Trump, Manafort and Russia, as Chalupa was co-ordinating an investigative effort between herself and the Clinton campaign. Shulyar, Chalupa and Telizhenko would later have a meeting to provide an update to an American media outlet’s investigation into Manafort.
On March 28, 2016, Donald Trump hired Paul Manafort for the Trump campaign to lead the delegate-corralling efforts.
Two days later, on March 30, Ukraine In Washington was hosted at Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, which was attended by Ambassador Chaly and Melanne Verveer and David Kramer.
In April 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Embassy’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs donated a $500,000.00 package of scanning equipment, hardware and software to teh National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.
On April 10, 2016, Prime Minister Arseniy Taysenyuk announced that he would resign from his position on April 12, 2016, which he then proceeded to do.
On April 28, 2016, Franklin Foer published the article “The Quiet American” (originally titled “Paul Manafort isn’t a GOP retread. He’s made a career of reinventing tyrants and despots.”) in Slate, about Manafort’s ties to Ukraine.
On May 5, 2016, Ambassador Pyatt visited the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and met with Director Artem Sytnyk, First Deputy Director Gizo Uglava and other Ukrainian officials.
On July 16, 2016, Josh Rogin published the article “Trump campaign guts GOP’s anti-Russia stance on Ukraine” in The Washington Post as an opinion piece.
Crossfire Hurricane was then opened on July 31, 2016 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In August 2016, Ukrainian authorities, under orders from Volodymyr Ariev, opened an investigation into Konstantin Kilimik on suspicion of ties to Russian intelligence agencies.
The same month, Paul Wood of BBC News spoke with a retired spy, whom said that they had heard about the existence of potential “kompromat” on Donald Trump from the head of an East European intelligence agency.
On August 3, 2016, Michael Crowley published the article “Trump changed views on Ukraine after hiring Manafort” in Politico. The next day, Ambassador Chaly published his opinion piece titled “Ukraine’s ambassador: Trump’s comments send wrong message to world” in The Hill.
On August 14, 2016, Andrew E. Kramer, Mike McIntyre and Barry Meier published the article “Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump’s Campaign Chief” in The New York Times. The next day, David Wright published “Manafort named in Ukrainian probe into millions in secret cash” in CNN, followed by Maxim Tucker’s article, “Trump campaign chief linked to secret Kiev cash payments” on August 17 in The Times of London, and Jeff Horwitz and Desmond Butler published “AP Sources: Manafort tied to undisclosed foreign lobbying” in The Associated Press.
The next day, on August 18, Michael Weiss published the article “Here’s How Donald Trump’s Paul Manafort Helped Created Chaos In Ukraine” in The Daily Beast. On the same day, L. Todd Wood disputed The New York Times’ initial article about Manafort, citing his own visit to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine in May 2016.
On August 19, 2016, Paul Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign, as Evan Perez published the article “First on CNN: Feds investigate Manafort firm as part of Ukraine probe” in CNN. Sergiy Leschenko, meanwhile, hosted a press conference in Kiev, where he discussed Manafort’s work for Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions.
During the United Nations General Assembly, President Poroshenko met with Hillary Clinton.
On January 11, 2017, Kenneth Vogel and David Stern published the article “Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire” in Politico.
We will discuss Ukraine in more detail at a later time.
United Kingdom
The leader of the United Kingdom during the 2016 United States Presidential election was initially Prime Minister David Cameron, and then later Prime Minister Theresa May, both of whom are members of the Conservative Party.
In July 1909, the Secret Service Bureau was founded by the Committee of Imperial Defence, under the orders of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith.
Ten years later, on November 1, 1919, the Government Code and Cypher School was founded, with Alastair Denniston acting as the first Director of GC & CS.
The next year, in 1920, the Secret Service Bureau renamed itself to the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), also known more commonly as “MI6”.
On August 14, 1941, the Atlantic Charter was drafted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Five years later, in 1946, the Government Code and Cypher School was officially renamed the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
Three months into 1946, on March 5, the UKUSA Agreement was officially signed, increasing intelligence co-operation between the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
In 1948, the UKUSA Agreement was updated, extending intelligence co-operation to Canada.
In 1956, the UKUSA Agreement was updated again, this time to extend intelligence co-operation to both Australia and New Zealand, forming the alliance known as “Five Eyes”.
In July 1968, Andrew Fulton was employed as a diplomat at the HM Diplomatic Service.
In 1987, Christopher Steele was recruited into the Secret Intelligence Service.
In April 1990, Steele was sent to the Soviet Union by the Secret Intelligence Service.
In 1991, Andrew Parker was stationed in the United States as a liaison between the Security Service and both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency. The same year, on August 19, Steele was ordered to monitor President Boris Yeltsin’s speech on the top of a tank in Moscow, Russia.
In April 1993, Steele left Moscow, Russia.
In 1995, three former British intelligence officers — Christopher James, Mike Reynolds and Jeremy Connell — founded the private intelligence organisation Hakluyt & Co. in London, England. The same year, Andrew Wood started to serve in Moscow, Russia.
In July 1996, Michael Hastings Jay was hired as the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to France at the British Embassy in Paris, France.
Two years later, in 1998, Steele and his family relocated to Paris, France, where Steele was also hired for the British Embassy.
In 1999, Parker left his position at the Security Service on a secondment to HM Customs & Excise as Director Intelligence. In January of that year, Fulton left his position as a diplomat of the HM Diplomatic Service.
In October 2001, Sir John Holmes was hired as the Ambassador of the United Kingdom to France at the British Embassy in Paris, France, replacing Michael Hastings Jay as Steele’s boss.
The next year, in 2002, Parker was promoted to the position of Director For Northern Ireland Terrorism, Protective Security and Serious Crime at the Security Service, while Steele and his family were relocated back to London, England from the British Embassy in Paris.
In February 2005, Parker was promoted again to the position of Director of International Terrorism at the Security Service. Five months later, Parker led the Security Service’s effort in response to the 7/7 London bombings.
The next year, in 2006, Steele met Bruce Ohr for the first time. In January of that year, Fulton was appointed as the Chairman at GPW. On November 23, Alexander Litvinenko passed away from radioactive polonium-210 poisoning in London’s University College Hospital.
In April 2007, Parker was appointed the Deputy Director General at the Security Service.
On December 1, 2007, Fulton was appointed as director at GPW + Co. Ltd.
The next year, Director Michael Hayden of the Central Intelligence Agency visited the United Kingdom, where he was briefed on developments in Russia by Steele. The same year, Steele informed the Secret Intelligence Service that he intended to leave and form Orbis Business Intelligence with Christopher Burrows, his colleague.
On March 17, 2009, Orbis Business Intelligence was incorporated under the name of HL 32999 Limited in London, England by Simon Ralph Barrett.
In April 2009, President Barack Obama visited the United Kingdom, where he was briefed on a report about Russia authored by Steele.
On March 29, 2010, Robert Hannigan was employed as the Director General of Defence and Intelligence at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
On May 12, 2010, Theresa May was appointed as the Home Secretary of the United Kingdom.
In 2011, Deputy Director General Parker participated in “Operation Examine”, which prevented 11 individuals from killing more people than the 7/7 London bombings, which led to their successful arrests on September 18, 2011. On November 22, Robert Hannigan visited the Philippines.
In 2012, Deputy Director General Parker worked with the Security Service to prevent any potential terrorist attacks led by al-Qaeda or other organisations from affecting the 2012 London Olympics.
On March 14, 2012, Robert Hannigan visited Miami, FL.
Two months later, in May 2012, 300 analysts from GCHQ and 250 analysts from the National Security Agency were assigned to sift through data gained through Operation Tempora.
Between June 27–29, 2012, the P5 Conference was hosted in Washington, DC, where it was attended by Robert Hannigan and Strobe Talbott.
On December 29, 2012, Robert Hannigan was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II to the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George.
On March 28, 2013, Andrew Parker was announced as the next Director General of the Security Service, which led to his appointment on April 22. In June 2013, Director General Parker was tasked with protecting the world leaders whom attended the 39th G8 Summit in Northern Ireland.
Later, on October 8, 2013, Director General Parker delivered a speech at the Royal United Services Institute, where he discussed the fallout of the leaks by Edward Snowden. On November 7, he, Director Sir Iain Lobban and Chief Sir John Sawers were questioned by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament in their first open evidence session.
The next year, on April 15, Robert Hannigan was appointed as the Director of GCHQ. The next day, April 16, WikiLeaks tweeted: “Robert Hannigan, in charge of dealing with #Assange case for UK Foreign Office (FCO), has been promoted to head up #GCHQ”.
Between June 2–3, 2014, the London Conference On Globalization and World Order was hosted at Lancaster House in London, England, where it was attended by Elizabeth Dibble and Tobias Ellwood.
On November 3, 2014, WikiLeaks again tweeted about Hannigan: “Note that the new GCHQ head, Robert Hannigan, was previously in charge of the #Assange standoff at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office”. The next day, Director General Parker spoke at the Atlantic Partnership in London.
On January 8, 2015, Director General Parker attended a meeting at Thames House in London, where he warned the attendees of potential future terror plots in the United Kingdom.
The next year, between March 30 — May 27, 2015, the United Kingdom general election was held, during which time the organisation known as “Fancy Bear” attempted to infiltrate all servers at Whitehall. Their efforts were then thwarted by GCHQ.
In the middle of this, on April 14, 2015, Director General Parker delivered the keynote address at the 25th Anniversary of the London Press Club Awards.
From May 14–16, 2015, a conference was hosted by the American Ditchley Foundation at a mansion in Oxfordshire, attended by numerous people, including Director Hannigan, whom only attended for one of the days.
At the end of the month, October 29, 2015, Director General Parker delivered the annual Lord Mayor’s Defence and Security Lecture, where he discussed the future and modernisation of the Security Service.
Between November 9–10, 2015, Director Hannigan attended the Information Assurance Event at Plaza Park, Westminster Bridge in London.
Between February 12–14, 2016, Director Hannigan attended the 52nd Munich Security Conference, alongside others such as Director James Clapper, Director General Robert Bertholee and President Toomas Hendrik Ilves.
A few days later, on February 20, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that a referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership within the European Union would be held on June 23, 2016.
On March 2, 2016, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond stated during a speech at Chatham House that the only country interested in Brexit would be Russia.
Five days later, on March 7, Director Hannigan delivered a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Around March 27, 2016, metadata from the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) was discovered originating from the computer servers of the Democratic National Committee by GCHQ, which was then brought to Director Hannigan’s attention. The Democratic National Committee’s information technology team only realised the seriousness of the incursion in late March.
On April 15, 2016, Director Hannigan attended the Stonewall Workplace Conference in Leeds, England.
Between April 21–24, 2016 President Barack Obama visited the United Kingdom.
Between May 21–23, 2016, the Doha Forum was hosted, which was attended by Tobias Ellworth and Joseph Mifsud.
On June 8, 2016, Director Hannigan attended the Cheltenham Science Festival, while Walid Phares attended Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday party on the invitation of Ambassador Kim Darroch and Lady Darroch in Washington, DC.
On June 24, 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, with the majority totalling 52% of the vote. Three days later, Director Brennan contacted Chief Alex Younger to discuss the vote.
“Regardless of what lies ahead, I would like to take this opportunity to say that the Brexit vote will not adversely affect the intelligence partnership between the United States and the United Kingdom in the months and years ahead. Indeed, I spoke to my counterpart in London early Monday morning, and we reaffirmed to one another that the bonds of friendship and cooperation between our services are only destined to grow stronger in the years ahead. These ties are — and will always be — essential to our collective security.” — Director John Brennan
At some point in July — September 2016, Director Hannigan visited Central Intelligence Agency Headquarters and met with Director John Brennan face-to-face to pass over sensitive information at “director level”, despite Director Hannigan’s counterpart being Admiral Rogers at the National Security Agency. This allowed Director Brennan to open an inter-agency investigation into the Trump campaign, also known as the Working Group, which we will discuss later.
“According to one account, GCHQ’s then head Robert Hannigan, passed material in summer 2016 to the CIA chief, John Brennan. The matter was deemed so sensitive it was handled at ‘director level’. After an initially slow start, Brennan used GCHQ information and intelligence from other partners to launch a major inter-agency investigation.”
On July 11, 2016, Theresa May was appointed the Leader of the Conservative Party, and two days later, she became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, replacing David Cameron. On July 19, Prime Minister May met with Secretary John Kerry at 10 Downing Street.
In late July to early August 2016, the Secret Intelligence Service started to receive information about Donald Trump.
Crossfire Hurricane was then opened on July 31, 2016 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Besides the information from the Australians, the investigation was also propelled by intelligence from other friendly governments, including the British and Dutch. A trip to Moscow by another adviser, Carter Page, also raised concerns at the F.B.I..” — The New York Times
“American allies, including the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials — and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin — and associates of President-elect Trump, according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence.” — The New York Times
On August 3, 2016, the United Kingdom requested for Special Agent Peter Strzok not to disclose the identities of anybody involved in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation to anybody outside of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
After September 13, 2016, when the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly had begun, Tobias Ellwood met with George Papadopoulos.
On November 1, 2016, Director General Parker had his first exclusive interview with Ewen MacAskill and Paul Johnson at The Guardian, where he warned of the potential threat of Russian interference in the United Kingdom.
On November 29, 2016, Director Hannigan presented an Arkwright Engineering Scholarship in London.
The next month, in December 2016, Prime Minister May and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson were informed about the existence of the Steele dossier, while Chief Younger gave a speech at the Secret Intelligence Service Headquarters, with the speech briefing notes containing information from the same dossier.
The British intelligence services would later assist both the Dutch and American intelligence agencies on the “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections” report, as British intelligence had allegedly seen the e-mails from the Democratic National Committee within Russian military intelligence networks.
“According to nearly a dozen people who either attended the meeting with the president-elect or were later briefed on it, the four primary intelligence officials described the streams of intelligence that convinced them of Mr. Putin’s role in the election interference. They included stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee that had been seen in the Russian military intelligence networks by the British, Dutch and American intelligence service.” — The New York Times
On January 10, 2017, BuzzFeed News published the Steele dossier, to which 10 Downing Street confirmed it had issued a DA-notice to protect the identity of Christopher Steele.
On January 23, 2017, three days after the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States, Robert Hannigan announced he would step down from his role as the Director of GCHQ, although he would wait for a successor to be chosen, which officially happened in April 2017.
On April 13, 2017, Luke Harding, Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Nick Hopkins published the article “British spies were first to spot Trump team’s links with Russia” in The Guardian.
On October 19, 2017, Foreign Secretary Johnson attended a fundraising dinner, where he was then photographed with Joseph Mifsud and Prasenjit Kumar Singh.
During a MAGA Rally in Las Vegas, NV on September 21, 2018, when President Donald Trump was interviewed by Sean Hannity, the President mentioned that two foreign governments were attempting to block the declassification of the FISA on Carter Page.
“We’re also dealing with foreign countries that do have a problem, I must tell you. I got called from two very good allies saying ‘please, can we talk?’ So it’s not as simple as all that. And we do have to respect their wishes. But it’ll all come out.” — President Donald Trump
And-
Oh, that’s all we have time for. See you next time!
