I’ve taken a lot of heat here for blogging about Louise Mensch, and I did say I would wait to blog until it’s shown that the Marshal of the Supreme Court really did visit Trump on the tarmac, but this latest news deserves a blogging. Also she has a very good update to her blog that deserves a mention, and a confession of unwitting wrongdoing that I think will interest many of my detractors here. My detractors were correct—initially Mensch’s writing did serve the interests of the Kremlin. She was furious when she found out, which explains her ferocious burning zeal to take down Putin ever since. She did not appreciate being used. All three listed below.
First, her vindication:
Second, her very informative article including a quote from Bill Browder:
Putin’s Wikileaks Host: “Mob Laundromat” Funded GOP
And finally, Mensch’s confession of how she was used to further the Kremlin’s interest by alerting those using the Alfa Bank server to stop sending incriminating data:
I have to say it feels like we have turned a corner, maybe the biggest corner since 1945.
Sunday, Feb 25, 2018 · 8:04:25 PM +00:00
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cordgrass
From a comment below, people want links to Mensch’s original reporting. Unfortunately her original Heat Street article has been taken down. There is an archive of the article here:
EXCLUSIVE: FBI ‘Granted FISA Warrant’ Covering Trump Camp’s Ties To Russia
Since then her reporting has been done on her own personal blog, patribotics.com. However, here is a wikipedia article detailing the contents of her Heat Street article:
en.wikipedia.org/…
On November 7, 2016, Louise Mensch reported in the right-leaning Heat Street, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had twice sought Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants in connection with its investigation of the Trump campaign's links to Russia. According to Mensch, the first request for a warrant which "named Trump" was denied in June 2016 and, a second, more "narrowly drawn" request was granted in October 2016. Mensch wrote that this warrant gave "counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of 'U.S. persons' in Donald Trump's campaign with ties to Russia," and to "look at the full content of emails and other related documents that may concern US persons". Mensch further claimed that the October warrant was granted in "connection with the investigation of suspected activity between the server [in Trump Tower] and two banks, SVB Bank and Alfa Bank," and that "it is thought in the intelligence community that the warrant covers any 'US person' connected to this investigation, and thus covers Donald Trump and at least three further men." Mensch's article cited reports from two anonymous "sources with links to the counter-intelligence community."
Sunday, Feb 25, 2018 · 8:29:41 PM +00:00
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cordgrass
OMG, for those of you who are upset because I posted a link to her original article rather than quoting it all in full, second update (and eyeroll).
By Louise Mensch|10:18 pm, November 7, 2016
Two separate sources with links to the counter-intelligence community have confirmed to Heat Street that the FBI sought, and was granted, a FISA court warrant in October, giving counter-intelligence permission to examine the activities of ‘U.S. persons’ in Donald Trump’s campaign with ties to Russia.
--snip—
The FISA warrant was granted in connection with the investigation of suspected activity between the server and two banks, SVB Bank and Alfa Bank. However, it is thought in the intelligence community that the warrant covers any ‘US person’ connected to this investigation, and thus covers Donald Trump and at least three further men who have either formed part of his campaign or acted as his media surrogates. The warrant was sought, they say, because actionable intelligence on the matter provided by friendly foreign agencies could not properly be examined without a warrant by US intelligence as it involves ‘US Persons’ who come under the remit of the FBI and not the CIA. Should a counter-intelligence investigation lead to criminal prosecutions, sources say, the Justice Department is concerned that the chain of evidence have a basis in a clear warrant.
In June, when the first FISA warrant was denied, the FBI was reportedly alarmed at Carter Page’s trip to Moscow and meetings with Russian officials, one week before the DNC was hacked. Counter intelligence agencies later reported to both Presidential candidates that Russia had carried out this hack; Donald Trump said publicly in the third debate that ‘our country has no idea’ if Russia did the hacking. The discovery of the Trump Tower private Russian server, however, communicating with Alfa Bank, changed matters, sources report.
Also, by the way, the redacted number in the Dem memo does seem to be “four”—further bolstering Mensch’s reporting.