Surprise! Another DNC link to spying on Trump team

from WND:

Reporter who wrote news story cited by FBI was secretly working with Democrats ‘for weeks’

Just when you thought the Democratic National Committee’s funding of the dossier used to spy on Trump’s campaign was scandalous, WikiLeaks has revealed another DNC connection to the FISA spying warrant.

It turns out the author of a Yahoo News story – which was reportedly used by the FBI and DOJ on a FISA warrant application to lend credibility to the anti-Trump dossier – had been secretly working with the DNC “for weeks.”

The Yahoo author who was reportedly working with the DNC is Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent at the news organization and co-author of the upcoming book “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump.”

On Wednesday, WikiLeaks released the following May 4, 2016, email from DNC contractor Alexandra Chalupa to DNC communications director Luis Miranda.

In it, Chalupa – who was at the center of allegations that Democrats worked with Ukranians to find dirt on Trump – tells Miranda, “… I invited Michael Isikoff whom I’ve been working with for the past few weeks and connected him to the Ukranians.”

Emails reveal that Michael Isikoff, whose Yahoo News article based on the “Steele dossier” was used to obtain the FISA interception warrant against the Trump campaign’s Carter Page, was secretly “working with” the DNC. https://t.co/zsRlb9CcVm pic.twitter.com/dkc4JIV0XN

— Julian Assange ⌛ (@JulianAssange) 7 February 2018

As WND reported, the dossier, commissioned by the political research firm Fusion GPS with funding from the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC, was written by former British spy Christopher Steele. According to the recently released House Republicans’ memo, the FBI and Justice Department relied on the Yahoo News story by Isikoff to lend credibility to the dossier.

The source of Isikoff’s Yahoo story was the author of the dossier, Steele, who held personal animus toward Trump, according to the memo, and was “passionate” about ensuring Trump did not become president.

Isikoff claimed Friday that he was surprised to learn his article about ex-Trump aide Carter Page was used by the FBI and the DOJ in the application for a spying warrant, according to the Daily Caller.

“Isikoff was shocked, he said, because his very article was based on information that came from Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the dossier,” the Daily Caller reported. “He said it was ‘a bit beyond me’ that the FBI would use his article in the FISA application.”

So what’s the problem with the DOJ and FBI using his article to support the application for a spying warrant against Page?

“It’s self-referential,” Isikoff said. “My story is about the FBI’s own investigation. So it seems a little odd that they would be citing the Yahoo! News story about the matter that they are investigating themselves based on the same material that had been separately presented to the FBI before I was ever briefed by Christopher Steele.”

The GOP memo released last week makes the same point.

It stated, “This article [by Isikoff] does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from the information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo! News.”

The Daily Caller continued: “Isikoff said that he wonders whether the Republican memo accurately characterized the FISA application or whether the FBI/DOJ were trying to ‘dress up’ the document. The latter scenario would be ’embarrassing’ for U.S. officials, he said.”

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