Why hire plumbers to get information on your political opponent when you can just use your party's intelligence agencies?

Opinion: How a senior DOJ official helped Dem researchers on Trump-Russia case

Hundreds of pages of previously unreported emails and memos provide the clearest evidence yet that a research firm, hired by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to find dirt on and defeat Donald Trump, worked early and often with the FBI, a Department of Justice (DOJ) official and the intelligence community during the 2016 presidential election and the early days of Trump's presidency.

Fusion GPS's work and its involvement with several FBI officials have been well reported.

But a close review of these new documents shows just how closely Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, who reported to Obama-era Deputy AG Sally Yates, maintained contact with Fusion — and, in particular, its primary source, former British spy Christopher Steele — before, during and after the election.
....
Ohr’s own notes, emails and text messages show he communicated extensively with Steele and with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson. Those documents have been turned over in recent weeks to investigative bodies in Congress and the DOJ, but not reviewed outside the investigative ranks until now.

They show Ohr had contact with Steele in the days just before the FBI opened its Trump-Russia probe in summer 2016, and then engaged Steele as a “confidential human source” (CHS) assisting in that probe.
....
The FBI specifically instructed Steele that he could no longer “operate to obtain any intelligence whatsoever on behalf of the FBI,” those memos show.

Yet, Steele asked Ohr in the Jan. 31 text exchange if he could continue to help feed information to the FBI: “Just want to check you are OK, still in the situ and able to help locally as discussed, along with your Bureau colleagues.”

“I’m still here and able to help as discussed,” Ohr texted back. “I’ll let you know if that changes.”
....
Some of the more tantalizing Ohr contacts occurred in the days when Steele made his first contacts with the FBI in summer 2016 about the Russia matter.

“There is something separate I wanted to discuss with you informally and separately. It concerns our favourite (sic) business tycoon!” Steele wrote Ohr on July 1, 2016, in an apparent reference to Trump.

That overture came just four days before Steele walked into the FBI office in Rome with still-unproven allegations that Trump had an improper relationship with Russia, including possible efforts to hijack the presidential election.
....
That meeting occurred exactly one day before FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok formally opened an investigation, dubbed Crossfire Hurricane, into whether the Trump campaign was colluding with Moscow to steal the election.

At the time, the case was based mostly on an Australian diplomat’s tip that Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos appeared to know in advance that the Russians possessed information involving Hillary Clinton before hacked documents were released on WikiLeaks.

Soon, the case expanded to include allegations that another Trump adviser, Carter Page, might have ties to Russia — an uncorroborated allegation from Fusion GPS’s research now known as the “Steele dossier.”
....
Steele offered Ohr many other theories over their contacts, including a now widely discredited one that the Russian Alfa Bank had a computer server “as a link” to the Trump campaign, Ohr’s notes show.

Though much of Steele’s information remained uncorroborated, the FBI nonetheless took the extraordinary step in October 2016 of seeking a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) surveillance warrant to monitor Carter Page during the final days of the election, based mostly on Steele’s dossier. The warrant was renewed at least three times, but Page was never charged.

Ohr’s connections to Steele are significant because at least one of the FISA warrants was approved by Ohr’s boss, Yates.
....
In all, Ohr’s notes, emails and texts identify more than 60 contacts with Steele and/or Simpson, some dating to 2002 in London. But the vast majority occurred during the 2016-2017 timeframe that gave birth to one of the most controversial counterintelligence probes in American history.

Judicial Watch's article on this.

FBI Records Show Dossier Author Deemed ‘Not Suitable For Use’ as Source, Show Several FBI Payments in 2016

“These new docs show the shady, cash-based relationship the Obama FBI had with Clinton operative Christopher Steele,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The anti-Trump Russia ‘investigation’ had Christopher Steele at its center and his misconduct was no impediment to using information from his Russia intelligence collaborators to spy on the Trump team. The corruption and abuse is astonishing.”

But wait there's more.

The Trump Tower Meeting Was Setup By The FBI and McCain

I have been saying that the Russian lawyer who met with Trump Jr was not allowed in the country because of her alleged connections to the Russian FSB. So how was she able to attend the meeting? Enter McCain, Lynch and Preet Bharara, the then U.S. Attorney for the southern district of New York.

But let's back up a bit before we talk about her shall we?

McCain illegally fed Classified FBI intelligence to Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele to Set Up Trump Tower Meeting; FBI Brass Helped Plot Scheme

Sen. John McCain brokered a clandestine and illegal deal, feeding Classified FBI intelligence to Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele to discredit Donald Trump prior to the 2016 election, according to federal law enforcement insiders.

McCain, a sitting GOP Senator, was provided names of “problematic Russians” the FBI had recently investigated or were in the process of investigating. Top FBI executives worked with McCain to provide the names of the Russians, FBI insiders confirmed. Then McCain, handed the list off to Fusion GPS who was working with Christopher Steele.

One of the names on the list was embattled Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya who was considered an international security risk and prior to the June 2016 sit down at Trump Tower was not even allowed entry into the United States or the UK, federal sources said.

Veselnitskaya also set up the infamous meeting at Trump Tower weeks after her name was handed off to McCain. The same meeting was used as an excuse to wiretap Trump associates.

Veselnitskaya also set up the infamous meeting at Trump Tower weeks after her name was handed off to McCain. The same meeting was used as an excuse to wiretap Trump associates.

What was the purpose for this set upped meeting with Jr and Veselnitskaya? She told Jr that she had 'dirt' on Hillary, but that wasn't the only reason for it. The meeting would not have happened if there wasn't some interference from McCain, the FBI, the NSA and the GCHQ which is the British equivalent of the American intelligence agencies. It was setup so that Trumps campaign could be spied on.

After the concocted Trump Tower meeting by the Deep State, the British spy agency could officially justify wiretapping Trump associates as an intelligence front for NSA because the Russian lawyer Veselnitskaya was considered an international security risk and prior to the June sit down was not even allowed entry into the United States or the UK, federal sources said.

By using GCHQ, the NSA and its intelligence partners had carved out a loophole to wiretap Trump without a warrant. While it is illegal for U.S. agencies to monitor phones and emails of U.S. citizens inside the United States absent a warrant, it is not illegal for British intelligence to do so. Even if the GCHQ was tapping Trump on U.S. soil at Fort Meade.
....
Federal law enforcement sources said Bharara was simply following the orders of Attorney General Lynch, who lobbied the State Department to issue the disavowed Russian a B1/B2 non-immigrant visa. This permitted Veselnitskaya entry into the United States for the sole purpose of entrapping Trump associates to use as fuel to commission wiretaps, federal sources said.

I have been working on this essay since Tuesday and I think it goes well with the essay that Amanda posted today.

Ed Mass linked to it in his comment in her essay, but I've included more information that shows the damned ugly Russian plot was ginned up by many players that want to brainwash people about Russia and Putin and it gives congress more reasons to sanction Russia. Which is illegal BTW. But when was the last time this country obeyed international laws?