CNN Exclusive: A Trump foreign policy adviser played key role in the pursuit of possible Hillary Clinton emails from the dark web before the 2016 election https://t.co/LFftYKeDcH w/ @JennaMC_Laugh @carlbernstein https://t.co/QuJC63lDnA
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 6, 2018
cough Blackwater exec cough https://t.co/xD6Zdmq6aX
— Zed Wood Junior (@Zeddary) April 6, 2018
… Joseph Schmitz approached the FBI and other government agencies about material a client of his had discovered that Schmitz believed might have been Clinton’s missing 30,000 emails from her private e-mail server, sources say. The material was never verified, and sources say they ultimately believed it was fake.
His push is the latest example of Trump advisers who were mixed up in efforts to find dirt on Clinton during the presidential campaign. Schmitz was one of the first people Trump named to his campaign’s national security and foreign policy team. The team, showcased in a March 2016 photo, was thrown together early in Trump’s successful run as he faced mounting pressure to prove his ability to pull in high-level advisers who could help prepare him for the White House.
Another adviser pictured in the photo, Trump’s foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, was told by a Kremlin-connected professor that the Russian government had damaging material on Clinton. Six weeks later, Donald Trump Jr. got a message from a business associate offering similar information, leading to the Trump Tower meeting that Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort attended…
Schmitz met with officials at the FBI, the State Department and the Intelligence Community Inspector General — the watchdog tasked with investigating Clinton’s alleged mishandling of classified information. He claimed a source he called “PATRIOT,” an unidentified contractor he was representing, had discovered what he believed was likely material stolen from Clinton that could contain classified information. Both the client and Schmitz were afraid that going through the material without permission could jeopardize their security clearances, though there is no indication their actions were illegal.
Schmitz then took a memo outlining his claims and concerns to the House Intelligence Committee. One cybersecurity expert outside the government who also saw the material on the dark web said the emails appeared to be fake, based on his review and the forum where they were posted.
“I’m pretty sure they were posted on the (dark web) equivalent of Reddit,” the source said…
That meeting was like the legion of freaking doom of ratfuckers.
— AgentHades (@AgentHades) April 6, 2018
Maybe Schmitz can plead the political equivalent of the ‘affluenza’ defense — he had no idea how ethics work, because he was raised by professional Republicans…
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