Fitton: 
Emails Suggest Obama FBI 
Knew McCain Leaked Trump Dossier



TOM FITTON

27 Apr 2020


We are getting more insight into the thinking of the corrupt 
FBI officials involved in the plot against Donald Trump – in 
particular what they knew and when they knew about the 
smear/leak operation using the shady “dossier.”

Our new understanding comes from 138 pages of emails between 
former FBI official Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page.

These include an email dated January 10, 2017, in which Strzok said 
that the version of the dossier published by [i]BuzzFeed[/i] was “identical” 
to the version given to the FBI by Sen. John McCain and had 
“differences” from the dossier provided to the FBI by Fusion GPS 
co-founder Glenn Simpson and Mother Jones reporter David Corn. 
January 10, 2017, is the same day [i]BuzzFeed[/i] published the anti-Trump
dossier by former British spy Christopher Steele.

The emails also show Strzok and other FBI agents mocking 
President Trump a few weeks before he was inaugurated. In addition, 
the emails reveal that Strzok communicated with 
then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe about the “leak investigation” 
tied to the Clinton Foundation 
(the very leak in which McCabe was later implicated).

We received the records in our January 2018 FOIA lawsuit filed after 
the DOJ failed to respond to a December 2017 request for all 
communications between Strzok and 
Page (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:18-cv-00154)).

The FBI has only processed the records at a rate of 500 pages per 
month and has refused to process text messages. At this rate, the 
production of these communications will not be completed until at 
least late 2021. The FBI is now using the coronavirus as an excuse 
to shut down the production of any further records.

On January 10, 2017, Strzok, under the subject “RE: Buzzfeed published 
some of the reports,” writes: “Our internet system is blocking the site. 
I have the pdf via iPhone, but it’s 25.6MB. Comparing now. The set is 
only identical to what [Sen. John] McCain had 
(it has differences from what was given to us by Corn and Simpson).”

Strzok sent the email to Page and several top-ranking FBI officials, including 
Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Assistant Director for the 
Counterintelligence Division Bill Priestap, Deputy Assistant Director of 
Counterintelligence Jon Moffa, Assistant Director for Public Affairs 
Michael Kortan, General Counsel James Baker, and Director James Comey’s 
Chief of Staff James Rybicki.

Earlier, on January 10, 2017, [i]BuzzFeed[/i] published a version of the 
dossier that Strzok said was “identical” to what McCain’s office had 
turned over to the FBI. Strzok sent the BuzzFeed-related email at 
7:48 PM. At 8:23 PM on the same day, Strzok forwards to Page and 
several FBI officials an article by the UK outlet [i]The Guardian[/i] titled 
“FBI chief given dossier by John McCain alleging secret 
Trump-Russia contacts.”

David Corn was one of Steele’s media contacts. Fusion GPS paid Steele, 
via funds from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and 
Hillary Clinton’s campaign, to write the dossier. In testimony to the 
Senate Judiciary Committee in August 2017, Simpson said he was 
not aware of any version of the Steele dossier being given to the FBI.

While acknowledging he had given the dossier to the FBI, McCain had 
denied being the source of the BuzzFeed dossier report. 
But court filings unsealed in March 2019 show the Arizona Republican 
senator and an associate had shared the dossier with several media outlets.

Former State Department official and McCain associate David Kramer
said in a December 13, 2017, deposition that the dossier was given to 
him by Steele and he then provided it to journalists at outlets including 
CNN, [i]BuzzFeed[/i] and [i]The Washington Post[/i]. The details were first 
reported by [i]The Daily Caller[/i].

The new records also include a December 22, 2016, email in which 
Strzok asks then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe if the FBI had 
opened a “leak investigation” into Clinton Foundation media reports. 
Strzok writes: “I received word via Jen that tomorrow morning Mike S 
[presumably Executive Assistant Director Michael Steinbach] wants to 
talk about whether we have opened a leak investigation into the 
publicity surrounding the C Foundation. He said he’d like to discuss, 
as the D [Director James Comey] ‘would like to do something.’ 
I need guidance as to how/if you’d like me to detail the media pull 
we conducted. As you may recall, we have not detailed that activity 
other than to you and Bill.” McCabe’s reply to Strzok is redacted.

McCabe was fired from the FBI in March 2018 for leaking to the media 
and lacking “candor.” A February 2018 DOJ inspector general report 
concluded “that McCabe’s disclosure of the existence of an ongoing 
investigation … violated the FBI’s and the Department’s media policy 
and constituted misconduct.” McCabe was referred for prosecution 
but the Justice Department declined.

The documents also include several emails in which Strzok forwards 
Russiagate-related news articles to Page and other FBI officials. 
On January 1, 2017, Strzok forwarded to Moffa and another unidentified 
official a [i]New York Times[/i] article titled “Trump Promises Revelation on 
Hacking.” The article discusses President-elect Donald Trump’s skepticism 
about U.S. intelligence assessments of Russian hacking relating to the 
2016 election. Strzok cut and pasted a quote from the article in which 
Trump said, “I don’t care what they say, no computer is safe. I have a boy 
who’s 10 years old; he can do anything with a computer. You want 
something to really go without detection, write it out and have it sent 
by courier.” The article mentions that Trump said new information would 
be coming out the following Tuesday. Strzok then says in his cover note, 
“I think the Tuesday surprise is all the stuff [redacted] told him during 
the CI [counterintelligence] briefing. He DID mention the stuff about his 
son and the computer password …” A redacted FBI agent replies to Strzok, 
but the reply is also redacted. Another FBI agent then responds, 
“To be accurate he called it a code word not a password. 
Ha!” Strzok replies, “Funnies.”

On December 15, 2016, Strzok forwards to Page an article from the [i]Daily Mail[/i] 
reporting that a former British diplomat, Craig Murray, claimed to have 
received emails that were stolen from the DNC and John Podesta. 
Murray said he received the emails near the grounds of American University 
in Washington, DC. The article says the emails were from an inside 
DNC source, not Russians. Strzok writes in his cover note to Page, 
“Shaddy sh*t at AU…”.

On December 21, 2016, Strzok forwards to Page a link to a 
Defense One article about Russian efforts to interfere in the U.S. 
presidential election. Strzok cut and pasted a quote from former 
Acting CIA Director Michael Morell in which Morell says, 
“To me, and this is to me not an overstatement, this is the 
political equivalent of 9/11.”

On December 26, 2016, Strzok forwards to Moffa and an unidentified 
Washington Field Office agent a Bloomberg article titled 
“Trump Aide Partnered with Firm Run by Man with Alleged KGB Ties.” 
The article reports that Trump adviser Gen. Michael Flynn, having 
partnered in 2016 with Subu Kota, a man who pleaded guilty in 1996 
to selling stolen biotech material to an FBI agent posing as a Russian spy. 
Strzok forwards the article to Page, saying, “See, look, I’m sharing… ”

On January 4, 2017, Strzok forwards to Page a 14-page white paper 
by the Capital Research Center entitled “Conducting Foreign Relations 
Without Authority: The Logan Act.” He had previously sent the same 
file to Office of General Counsel attorney Trisha Anderson and to Priestap.

In a January 4, 2017, email thread a redacted official in the FBI’s 
Operational Technology Division emails Strzok and Page: 
“The AD [Assistant Director] of Cyber is apparently bringing up the 
idea of [redacted]. [Redacted] just messaged me after being pinged 
by SF [likely the FBI’s San Francisco office]. He asked why this was 
coming up again, and he wants to talk to me about it next week. 
Any recommendation on how to deal with this?” Pages replies, 
“Why don’t you let Pete or Bill or I reach out to the AD of Cyber to 
let him know how we got here [redacted]. It might then be 
worth [redacted].” The official responds, “Perfect. That works for 
me and you can mention that OTD brought it to you. My initial 
recommendation was for the AD to reach out to you two, but I can 
only assume that message did not reach him.”

On January 9, 2017, in an email with the subject line “USIC report,” 
[U.S. Intelligence Community] Strzok tells Page and a redacted official 
“Per D’s request on Friday, NYO received a single copy of the 
influence report from ODNI’s [redacted]; it is being maintained in the 
CD SAC’s safe for PEOTUS [president-elect of the United States]/senior staff.”

On January 10, 2017, Strzok emails Page, Moffa, Priestap and 
Jennifer Boone to say, “Per Rich [presumably Richard Quinn, formerly 
with the public affairs office], CNN to publish C material today 
between 4 and 5. Page replies: “We have lots of details from 
kortan [Asst Dir Michael Kortan of public affairs]. 
He will brief at the 3:45.” Strzok responds: “Can I maybe get a 
read out vis a vis relationship with Brits etc?”

The significance of these new emails is that Strzok and his Obama FBI 
colleagues knew almost immediately that McCain likely leaked the 
infamous dossier. The emails also show that senior FBI officials had 
contempt for President Trump and gossiped about its counterintelligence 
briefing to him. The FBI under Comey and McCabe was a train wreck 
and, given the ongoing cover-up of these docs, the agency hasn’t 
improved much.

This latest records release adds to the volume of material we’ve already 
uncovered on the Strzok/Page machinations. Here is some of our 
previous work in this area.

In February 2020, we uncovered an August 2016 email in which Strzok 
says that Clinton, in her interview with the FBI about her email controversy, 
apologized for “the work and effort” it caused the bureau and she said 
she chose to use it “out of convenience” and that “it proved to be 
anything but.” Strzok said Clinton’s apology and the “convenience” 
discussion were “not in” the FBI 302 report that summarized the interview.

Also in February, we made public Strzok-Page emails showing their 
direct involvement in the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the bureau’s 
investigation of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and 
Russia. The records also show additional “confirmed classified emails” 
were found on Clinton’s unsecure non-state.gov email server 
“beyond the number presented” in then-FBI Director James Comey’s 
statements; Strzok and Page questioning the access the DOJ was 
granting Clinton’s lawyers; and Page revealing that the DOJ was making 
edits to FBI 302 reports related to the Clinton Midyear Exam investigation. 
The emails detail a discussion about “squashing” an issue related to 
the Seth Rich controversy.

In January 2020, we uncovered Strzok-Page emails that detail special 
accommodations given to the lawyers of Clinton and her aides during the 
FBI investigation of the Clinton email controversy.

In November 2019, we revealed Strzok-Page emails that show the 
attorney representing three of Clinton’s aides were given meetings 
with senior FBI officials.

Also in November, we uncovered emails revealing that after Clinton’s 
statement denying the transmission of classified information over her 
unsecure email system, Strzok sent an email to FBI officials citing 
“three [Clinton email] chains” containing © [classified] portion marks 
in front of paragraphs.”

The coup cabal’s house of cards is looking more fragile by the day, 
thanks in large measure to Judicial Watch.