Seth Abramson
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@SethAbramson
6m6 minutes ago
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42/ We now know—via Glenn Simpson's testimony—that Steele went to the media in September 2016 because the FBI had taken no action on his whistleblower information since June. He then went back to the media in October, when the FBI told the NYT there was no evidence against Trump.
43/ In other words, Steele—per Simpson—began to suspect a coverup at the FBI to protect *Trump*, much like we have evidence (audio, video, emails, tweets) that there was a coverup at the New York field office to protect Trump and harm Clinton over the "new" emails on Weiner's PC.
44/ So the Republicans can whinge about Steele going to the media as much as they like—it only hurts *Trump*, as it re-opens media consideration of the pro-Trump conspiracy at the FBI that Chris Steele (as we now know, *justly*) was concerned about during the latter half of 2016.
45/ The memo claims Steele lied to the FBI about his media contacts—which makes no sense, as his two contacts with the FBI pre-election *both* came before he'd briefed the media about his research. So the question to ask here is, *when* is the memo saying Steele lied to the FBI?
46/ This matters, as Trump allies in Congress have made a criminal referral on Steele *because* of this (timeline-nonsensical) claim that Steele lied to the FBI about his media contacts *prior* to the election—and was "suspended" (whatever that could mean) by the FBI as a result.
47/ But wait—it gets better. The allegation that Steele was "suspended and then terminated" by the FBI—which again, makes no basic sense because he *wasn't working for or paid a salary by them*—must also be false, because he was still having FBI contacts in December 2016. So...?