How funny is it that it turns out Christopher Steele's super-Russian gov't intel-connected insider was...some apparatchik working for the Brookings Institute in Washington DC?

Haven't dug into the timeline of his life yet, but it looks like this guy hasn't been back to Mother Russia in decades.

So how the hell would he be getting key inside info from "Putin's inner circle" and "top Russian intelligence officials" if like Steele himself, he hasn't spent any real time in Russia since he set up shop in DC as one of the endless "experts" all working for D.C. think tanks?

All this **key intelligence info** Steele's super-duper-connected subsource was getting from his 'network' was supposedly coming from INSIDE the Kremlin, inside the Russian gov't itself, including key Russian intelligence people.

Current info, not decades old.

My initial impression of Igor Danchenko so far is that of a guy who left Russia years ago, around 1999, goes to Georgetown U from 2006-2009, earns an M.A., starts his tenure at the Brookings Inst. while at Georgetown, and then rattles around DC ever since looking for work.

If **THIS** is the guy Christopher Steele passed off to the FBI Crossfire Hurricane team as his super-duper-Russian-intelligence-&-Putin-connected source with his own intrepid network inside the Kremlin?

I'M GOING TO LAUGH MY ASS OFF FOREVER AND EVER AMEN

Remember what happened:

Halper **couldn't get @carterwpage OR @GeorgePapa19 to say ANYTHING incriminating while he was recording them.

FBI's Crossfire Hurricane team wasted MONTHS letting Halper try to set up meetings to lead them into saying incriminating statements.

TIME WAS RUNNING OUT. It was now Oct. 2016.

Once they figured out Halper's surreptitious recording of Page/PapaD was not going to give them what they needed, they had to move to PLAN B:

They had to use the STEELE DOSSIER.

And to use the Steele Dossier, a whole lot of FINESSE was going to be required.

The CH team had to **hide** from their own superiors that Steele was working for the Clinton campaign & his subsource giving him the "C. Page is a Russian agent!" info hadn't been interviewed.

None of the subsource's info had been checked out or verified, and NOBODY had interviewed that subsource before the warrant app. was submitted to the FISA Court.

So the FISA Court grants the warrant, never hears that all this stuff is unverified & Steele works for Hillary.

Not until the @carterwpage warrant is up for it's FIRST RENEWAL does a team of FBI agents get dispatched to interview Steele's subsource & try to verify the info against Page.

FBI has already been spying on Page & Trump's campaign/transition team for THREE MONTHS by then.

GUESS WHAT STEELE'S PRIMARY SUBSOURCE TELLS THE FBI AGENTS?

He tells them he DISAVOWS all these allegations of Carter Page being any kinda Russian agent. He **insists** he did not tell Steele any of this as 'intelligence', they were RUMORS, scuttlebutt, idle talk!

Steele sold this subsource as being some kinda super connected person, with a 'network' of contacts inside the Kremlin & Russian intelligence, sources close to Putin himself.

And it was all BULLSHIT.

Remember how early on Comey & McCabe & Co. were insisting that intrepid former MI6 spy Steele's work was **gold standard**? His word was impeccable, his reputation sterling, etc. etc.?

So none of his SOURCES had to be interviewed, he could be the 'source' himself!

I remember @AndrewCMcCarthy in particular calling foul over this idea that everybody should just take Steele's word for it because he was just so AWESOME.

McCarthy pointed out this was simply NOT DONE. You **had** to interview primary sources & verify their info.

Instead, by some foul trickery, 2nd and 3rd hand accounts that **were not from actual eyewitnesses** were used in this surveillance warrant of Carter Page.

But we were told Steele was just so HONEST & competent, 2nd & 3rd hand stories would get this job done!

And what did we find out when DOJ Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz released his FISA Abuse report last December?

I'll tell you what we found out.

STEELE LIED HIS ASS OFF TO THE FBI.

His own primary subsource **denied** everything he passed them for that Page warrant.

Did you know FRAUD is a crime?

If you convince someone to pay you for work paid for with federal taxpayer's money and you give them something bogus?

It's true.

THIS GUY defrauded the US gov't.

He was **paid** by the FBI for this fake crap.

"Thanks for the money, suckers!"

To finger @carterwpage as a "Russian agent" so he could get PAID by the FBI, Christopher Steele **invented** a super-duper-connected subsource who had a network of people close to Putin & Russian intelligence.

Steele **claimed** his Page info came from this source.

IT DID NOT.

At this point we're **still** not sure exactly HOW MUCH of taxpayer's money the FBI paid Steele for the FAKE INFO they ended up using in the corrupt warrant on @carterwpage.

Some say $36,000, but it was likely far more than that.

Take a look at this:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1031

And TONIGHT...this night...just hours ago...enough info was declassified to **identify** who Steele used as his primary subsource for his dossier and his Carter Page info.

It was...some minor DC think-tank researcher connected to the Brookings Inst. named Igor Danchenko.

A 3 1/2 year old mystery, solved at last!

FEELS GREAT!!!!

For years people thought it was Sergei Millian. It wasn't.

I wanted definitive proof.

It didn't show until today.

Patience is a virtue.