Russia Gate-How it Happened

Before and after the 2016 election, President Donald Trump was accused of colluding with the Russians to influence the outcome of the contest. There was even an official investigation into the allegations headed by former FBI Director Robert Mueller. Mueller concluded the Trump campaign expected to capitalize on support from The Kremlin, but there was no conspiracy between the two. The question remains—how did all this start?

During the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton (who was running against Trump) sought to dig up dirt on her opponent. This is not unusual; most campaigns resort to such tactics. In this instance, Clinton and the Democratic National Committee used the law firm of Perkins-Coie to hire Fusion GPS, a firm that specializes in opposition research. Fusion in turn hired former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele to complete a report. His work became known as the Steele Dossier. In addition to some gross and pornographic items, the Dossier basically said that Trump was groomed by the Russians to become President and was, in effect, an agent of the Kremlin. Most media outlets were aware of the Dossier before the election but did not use it because its contents could not be verified.

At the same time he was working for Fusion, Steele was also a paid informant of the FBI. Even though he was fired by the Bureau after he was caught leaking a story to Rolling Stone, he was able to deliver a copy of his Dossier to James Baker, general counsel of the FBI. After the firing, the Bureau continued to receive Steele info through a backchannel. The backchannel was Bruce Ohr, a Justice Department employee, and his wife Nellie who was employed by Fusion. She would send material to her husband, and he would forward it to the FBI.

Things got serious when Steele leaked a story he had already sent to the FBI to Michael Isikoff, a writer for Yahoo News. The crux of the story was that Carter Page, a low level employee of the Trump campaign, sold the Russians access to Trump. The story that appeared in Yahoo was used by the Bureau to get a FISA warrant against Page. A FISA warrant allowed the FBI not only to spy on Page but also others in his orbit which included Trump himself.

Another angle to this somewhat complex investigation concerns the story of George Papadopoulos, another low level Trump campaign figure. Papadopoulos had a barroom conversation in London with Alexander Downer, an Australian diplomat and a 25 million dollar donor to the Clinton Foundation. Papadopoulos allegedly said that the Russians had hacked Clinton emails and the Trump campaign was trying to get its hands on the contents. Downer passed the information to Elizabeth Dibble, a state department employee. Papadopoulos denied making the statement but later pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his knowledge of a professor’s high level contacts within the Russian government. This was supposedly the incident which led to the creation of Crossfire Hurricane, the official government investigation into the Trump campaign. Crossfire was headed by admitted Trump hater Peter Strzok. Strzok sent Stephan Halfer, an undercover FBI informant, to establish contact with Carter Page to see what he could find out through casual conversations.

After Crossfire Hurricane came up empty as far as tangible evidence is concerned, Michael Sussmann enters the story. Sussmann, a lawyer for Perkins Coie, told the FBI that the Russians were secretly communicating with Trump through a secure channel called Alfa-Bank. He said he was informing the FBI out of patriotism rather than loyalty to his client who just happened to be Hillary Clinton. Nothing was ever proven in this regard, but it may have allowed Crossfire Hurricane to continue operating after Trump was elected President.

So, there you have it. The story, of course, continued to evolve and develop with the Mueller Investigation and the first Trump Impeachment. Was it a witch hunt or a legitimate inquiry? The answer to that probably depends on one’s political perspective.