John Solomon: 10 secret documents capable of 'rocking' deep state

John Solomon, an award-winning investigative journalist who uncovered FBI intelligence failures before 9/11, has revealed a list of 10 secret documents about the Russia-collusion scandal that have the potential of “rocking” Washington’s deep state.

They could show, he reported in the Hill, “how a routine counterintelligence probe was hijacked to turn the most awesome spy powers in America against a presidential nominee in what was essentially a political dirty trick orchestrated by Democrats.”

He said there has been discussion about making some of the documents public.

“But the long wait for transparency may soon end,” he said. “The foot-dragging inside the intelligence community (IC) that occurred under now-departed DNI Dan Coats and his deputy, Sue Gordon, could halt abruptly. That’s particularly true if Trump appoints a new IC sheriff, such as former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the current ambassador to the Netherlands, or longtime national security expert Fred Fleitz.”

His own research suggests there are about a dozen documents altogether that could severely impact the deep state.

He listed the top 10.

First would be Christopher Steele’s “confidential human source reports.” He said they show what happened each time Steele and his FBI handlers met to talk about that infamous anti-Trump “dossier.”

“It would be a huge discovery if the FBI fed Trump-Russia intel to Steele in the midst of an election, especially when his ultimate opposition-research client was Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee,” Solomon explained.

Second would be the 53 House Intelligence Committee interviews with many key players in the probe, providing the “first evidence that a lawyer tied to the Democratic National Committee had Russia-related contacts at the CIA.”

Third would be the Stefan Halper documents.

“These documents would show what intelligence agencies worked with Halper, who directed his activity, how much he was paid and how long his contacts with Trump officials were directed by the U.S. government’s Russia probe,” Solomon explained.

Another would be the FBI email chain from October 2016, which could reveal what the FBI and DOJ thought about using Steele’s dossier for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant targeting the Trump campaign – and whether those concerns were shared with FISA judges.

If not, “There could be major repercussions,” he said.

Fifth, according to Solomon, would be exculpatory statements regarding Trump campaign volunteers Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.

“These documents purport to show what the two Trump aides were recorded telling undercover assets or captured in intercepts insisting on their innocence. Papadopoulos told me he told an FBI undercover source in September 2016 that the Trump campaign was not trying to obtain hacked Clinton documents from Russia and considered doing so to be treason. If he made that statement with the FBI monitoring, and it was not disclosed to the FISA court, it could be another case of FBI or DOJ misconduct,” Solomon wrote.

Next would be the “Gang of Eight” materials, which Solomon’s sources contend “changed the minds of lawmakers who weren’t initially convinced of FISA abuses.”

Then there’s the Steele spreadsheet.

“I wrote recently that the FBI kept a spreadsheet on the accuracy and reliability of every claim in the Steele dossier. According to my sources, it showed as much as 90 percent of the claims could not be corroborated, were debunked or turned out to be open-source internet rumors. Given Steele’s own effort to leak intel in his dossier to the media before Election Day, the public deserves to see the FBI’s final analysis of his credibility,” Solomon wrote.

No. 8 would be the interview with Steele by the DOJ’s inspector general.

“It is clear from documents already forced into the public view by lawsuits that Steele admitted in the fall of 2016 that he was desperate to defeat Trump, had a political deadline to make his dirt public, was working for the DNC/Clinton campaign and was leaking to the news media,” Solomon said.

The question: Was that disclosed to the FISA court?

Then there is, No. 9, the redacted portions of the last FISA application for permission to spy on the Trump campaign.

“It is the one FISA application that House Republicans have repeatedly asked to be released, and I’m told the big reveal in the currently redacted sections of the application is that it contained both misleading information and evidence of intrusive tactics used by the U.S. government to infiltrate Trump’s orbit,” he wrote.

Finally, there’s information about what American allies Britain, Australia and Italy were asked to do.

“My sources say these documents might help explain Attorney General William Barr’s recent comments that ‘the use of foreign intelligence capabilities and counterintelligence capabilities against an American political campaign, to me, is unprecedented and it’s a serious red line that’s been crossed.'”

Read Solomon’s full article.