Smith, Peter W

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see Hunting of Pres</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see whitewater</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">nothing since ark, then boom</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>see barbara Ledeen</b> /ginni</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">but the emails (russia, if you're listening)</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">some lnx</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">tr</span>ump recently <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/02/13/the-purge-may-not-be-over-white-house-expected-to-drop-pentagon-nominee-after-impeachment-acquittal/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box;">abruptly withdrew the nomination</a> of Jessie Liu, the former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, to a top Treasury Department role after a memo from Thomas' group alleged that she was "unfit for the job." The memo argued that Liu should be removed because she did not act on "criminal referrals of some of Justice Brett Kavanaugh's accusers," had signed a sentencing memo recommending prison time for former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and had not sought to indict former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe.</font></div><p style="margin: 20px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The memo was authored by Barbara Ledeen, a longtime Republican Senate staffer and close friend of Flynn.<b> Ledeen was involved in the Trump campaign's efforts to obtain stolen Hillary Clinton emails and was <a href="https://www.openmuellerreport.org/person/barbara-ledeen" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">named extensively</a> throughout former special counsel Bob Mueller's report.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.openmuellerreport.org/person/barbara-ledeen" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.openmuellerreport.org/person/barbara-ledeen</a></font></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another memo urged the firing of numerous State Department officials accused of undermining Trump, including top U.S. diplomat David Hale, who later <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/11/20/the-latest-gop-defense-of-trump-evaporates-with-a-whimper/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent;">testified in the impeachment inquiry</a>.</font></p></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Wayback Machine</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://www.openmuellerreport.org/person/barbara-ledeen</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">OPEN <b>Mueller Report</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Search</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">People</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Organizations</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Volume I</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Volume II</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Download</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">About</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Barbara Ledeen in the Mueller Report - 7 Mentions</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page 70 of 448</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See the full source</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page 70:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“ Barbara Ledeen and Peter Smith were among the people contacted by Flynn.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ledeen, a long-time Senate staffer Who had previously sought the Clinton emails, provided updates to</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">active in Republican politics, also attempted to locate and obtain the deleted Clinton emails.267 Ledeen</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">17 302, at 7-8. 267 Flynn 11/29/17 302, at 7. “ 2“ Szobocsan 3/29/17 302, at 1. 269 12/3/15 Email, Ledeen</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">to Smith. 27° 12/3/15 Email, Ledeen to Smith (attachment). 62</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page 71 of 448</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See the full source</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page 71:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">wrote, “we can discuss to whom it should be referred.”271 On December 16, 2015, Smith informed Ledeen</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page 72 of 448</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See the full source</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page 72:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In September 2016, Smith and Ledeen got back in touch with each other about their respective efforts.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ledeen wrote to Smith, “wondering if you had some more detailed reports or memos or other data you could</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">marry it against the new data we have found and then could <b>share it back to you ‘your eyes only.</b>”’232 Ledeen</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Ledeen wanted to authenticate the emails and solicited Contributions to fund that effort.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Email, Smith to Flynn et al.; 8/28/16 Email, Smith to Smith (bcc: <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Clovis </span>et al.). 232 9/16/16 Email, Ledeen</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page 73 of 448</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See the full source</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page 73:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.287 <b>The investigation did not establish that Smith was in contact with Russian hackers or that Smith, Ledeen</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page 142 of 448</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See the full source</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page 178 of 448</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See the full source</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page 178:</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">about the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"> sanctions until he had heard from the team at Mar_aLago.1241 He ﬁrst spoke with Michael Ledeen</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">° SF000001 (12/29/16 Text Message, Flynn to Flaherty). 12‘” Flynn 11/20/17 302, at 3. 1242<b> Michael Ledeen</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>is married to Barbara Ledeen, the Senate staffer whose 2016 efforts to locate Hillary Clinton’s missing</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">described in Volume 1, Section III.D.2, supra. 1243 Flynn 11/17/17 302, at 3; Call Records of Michael Ledeen</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page 406 of 448</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">See the full source</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Page 406:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Krickovic, Andrej Krylova, Aleksandra Kushner, Jared Kuznetsov, Sergey Landrum, Pete Lavrov, Sergey Ledeen</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, Barbara Ledeen, Michael Ledgett, Richard Lewandowski, Corey Luff, Sandra Lyovochkin, Serhiy Magnitsky</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FAQ</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Where is this data from?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We have run image and text processing on the all 448 pages of the original Mueller Report PDF Image to make it searchable. Text translations are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate. Original Images and PDF's are included on every page for reference.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Why did you do this?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Mueller Report is one of the most important documents in American History. We've made attempts to make the document more accessible, interesting and available for the average reader.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Search The Mueller Report</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Open Text Searchable Mueller Report.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>=</b></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">His Cheatin' Heart</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>During this period the editor of The American Spectator was R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., author of Boy Clinton: The Political Biography, published by Regnery.</b> Scaife’s foundations gave $2.4 million to The American Spectator Education Foundation while it was running anti-Clinton articles. The foundation launched the “Arkansas Project,” financing information-gathering operations involving reporters, private investigators, former law enforcement officers, and political operatives. Public tax records of the foundation were obtained by Joe Conason at the New York Observer, who discovered that $1.7 million of the Scaife funds between 1993 and 1996 had been reported as legal fees but apparently used for the “Arkansas Project.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Some $35,000 of these funds ended up with Parker Dozhier, who owns a fishing camp in Arkansas. One witness for Starr, David Hale, “was staying at Dozhier’s fishing cabin complex in Hot Springs, Ark., between 1994 and 1996.” Two former friends of Dozhier claim he made small cash payments to Hale, but Dozhier denies that claim. Dozhier, however, provided free accommodations to Hale. Dozhier served as a conduit for information on Whitewater from Hale and others to investigators, reporters, and representatives from The American Spectator. Theodore Olson, a director at the Spectator Foundation, was Hale’s lawyer in 1995 and 1996. Olson is Ken Starr’s former law partner. A grand jury is considering if illegalities were committed.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Other potential witnesses against Clinton were clearly in the cash pipeline. According to Boston Globe reporter John Aloysius Farrell:</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">…Peter W. Smith,</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> a wealthy Chicago businessman and supporter of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, paid thousands of dollars to the Arkansas state troopers whose tales of Clinton’s sex life, published in the Spectator, sparked the Paula Jones case.</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since the Spectator article in December 1993, it was known that unnamed conservative benefactors <span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">gave the troopers financial assistance. The Chicago Sun-Times pierced the veil of anonymity…identifying <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Smith—</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">a big contributor to GOPAC</span>,</b> the political action committee once led by Gingrich— as the man who gave $6,700 each to two troopers and introduced them to David Brock, the writer of the article. Smith has given $150,000 to GOPAC in the last 12 years.</span></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">He told the Sun-Times he spent $80,000 in the 18 months after Clinton’s election to get stories about the president’s personal life into the media.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">th<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">e Wall Street Journal has doggedly pursued a strand of the Russa investigation that has largely flown under the radar as other avenues of investigation such as President Donald Trump's financial ties to Moscow and Paul Manafort's dealings in Ukraine garnered more attention. But a new</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/mueller-probes-wikileaks-contacts-with-conservative-activists-1539978208" style="text-decoration-line: none;">report</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">from the paper on Friday reveals that it not only the Journal that's been paying attention — Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has zeroed in on the curious case of GOP operative Peter Smith as well.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith, who died shortly before the Journal first began reporting on his actions in 2017, was conducting a wide-ranging effort in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election to track down Hillary Clinton's emails. Along the way, he developed a relationship with disgraced Trump campaign aide and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And now, the Journal says there is evidence that could tie Smith to WikiLeaks' dispersal of stolen emails from Hillary Clinton's Campaign Chair John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee.</font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Investigators also have evidence that the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/late-gop-activist-peter-w-smith-met-with-former-trump-adviser-michael-flynn-in-2015-sources-say-1539196064?mod=article_inline" style="text-decoration-line: none;">late GOP activist Peter W. Smith</a> may have had advance knowledge of details about the release of emails from a top Hillary Clinton campaign official by WikiLeaks, one person familiar with the matter said," the Journal wrote.</font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The article also says that the investigators have pursued related lines of inquiry, including examining Trump ally Roger Stone's and conservative pundit Jerome Corsi's connections with WikiLeaks.</font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/michael-flynn-peter-w-smith-collusion-trump-russia.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">explained</a> the significance of these potential connections:</font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p data-editable="text" data-uri="nymag.com/intelligencer/components/clay-paragraph/instances/cjnghbixh000p3g60wyx8lyus@published" data-word-count="38" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If true, this would mean that Smith wasn’t merely attempting to get ahold of stolen Clinton emails. He got through to WikiLeaks and was, in some form, a channel of collusion between the hackers and the Trump campaign.</font></p><p data-editable="text" data-uri="nymag.com/intelligencer/components/clay-paragraph/instances/cjnghbixq000r3g60sv6mh9vd@published" data-word-count="28" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Flynn long ago started cooperating with Robert Mueller. So if Flynn discussed any of this information with Trump during the campaign, the special counsel probably knows about it.</font></p></blockquote><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/know-about-peter-w-smith-fd05b9284cbd">https://thinkprogress.org/know-about-peter-w-smith-fd05b9284cbd</a></font></p><p name="c516" id="c516" class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure" style="margin: 38px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Wall Street Journal published <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-activist-who-sought-clinton-emails-cited-trump-campaign-officials-1498872923" data-href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-activist-who-sought-clinton-emails-cited-trump-campaign-officials-1498872923" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">two</a> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-operative-sought-clinton-emails-from-hackers-implied-a-connection-to-flynn-1498770851" data-href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-operative-sought-clinton-emails-from-hackers-implied-a-connection-to-flynn-1498770851" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">explosive</a> reports detailing the actions of Republican operative Peter W. Smith during last year’s presidential election. According to the WSJ, Smith was seeking to acquire stolen Hillary Clinton emails from Russian hackers. Smith told associates that he discussed his activities with a key member of the Trump campaign, Michael Flynn.</font></p><p name="f596" id="f596" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Trump campaign <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-operative-sought-clinton-emails-from-hackers-implied-a-connection-to-flynn-1498770851" data-href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-operative-sought-clinton-emails-from-hackers-implied-a-connection-to-flynn-1498770851" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">did not deny the connection</a>, telling the WSJ that “if Mr. Flynn coordinated with him in any way, it would have been in his capacity as a private individual.”</b></font></p><p name="6783" id="6783" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith could be the missing link in the Trump-Russia probe that is now being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The FBI, CIA, NSA and Director of National Intelligence have publicly stated that<a href="https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf" data-href="https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;"> Russia hacked emails to help Trump win the election</a>. The extent to which the Trump campaign collaborated with Russia in that effort is unknown. (Trump and his advisers have denied involvement.)</font></p><p name="5716" id="5716" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But beyond his alleged connections to Flynn, Smith has deep ties to the Trump orbit and the Republican establishment.</font></p><h4 name="a37b" id="a37b" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" style="letter-spacing: -0.018em; margin: 30px 0px 0px -1.5px; --baseline-multiplier:0.157; line-height: 1.22; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith was a longtime supporter and confidant to Newt Gingrich, a key member of the Trump campaign</font></h4><p name="9f89" id="9f89" class="graf graf--p graf--startsWithDoubleQuote graf-after--h4" style="margin: 6px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; text-indent: -0.4em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“[W]hen Peter W. Smith talks, Newt Gingrich listens.” That was the introduction to a 1995 article in Crain’s Chicago Business about Gingrich’s “Illinois patrons.”</font></p><p name="b516" id="b516" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith was one of the earliest and most enthusiastic backers of Gingrich. The article details how Smith contributed “more than $109,000…since 1989 to Mr. Gingrich and his affiliated interests.” He raised even more money. It made Smith the “No. 1 financial backer of Mr. Gingrich, and one of the top 20 contributors nationwide.”</font></p><p name="4170" id="4170" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith, who worked in finance, also hosted “lunches in his <b>Wrigley Building</b> offices every month or so for visiting GOP luminaries, such as Mr. Gingrich.”</font></p><p name="efe5" id="efe5" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A couple of decades later, Gingrich was <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/06/politics/newt-gingrich-donald-trump/index.html" data-href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/06/politics/newt-gingrich-donald-trump/index.html" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">a top adviser to Trump</a> and his campaign. Smith was seeking to connect with Russian hackers to obtain emails he believed were stolen from Hillary Clinton.</font></p><h4 name="130d" id="130d" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" style="letter-spacing: -0.018em; margin: 30px 0px 0px -1.5px; --baseline-multiplier:0.157; line-height: 1.22; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith had ties to Breitbart, the online news outlet run by Trump’s chief strategist</font></h4><p name="fc21" id="fc21" class="graf graf--p graf-after--h4" style="margin: 6px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While Smith’s ties to Gingrich goes back decades, he more recently became acquainted with <b>Matt Boyle,</b> the Washington Political Editor of Breitbart.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> That publication was run by Steve Bannon until he left, first to join the Trump campaign and then the White House as chief strategist.</span></font></p><p name="71b2" id="71b2" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Smith’s connection to Boyle was revealed, ironically, when his emails were hacked and released on a website called DC Leaks. The emails have been taken offline but are accessible <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20170217164707/http://dcleaks.com:80/index.php/the-united-states-republican-party/" data-href="http://web.archive.org/web/20170217164707/http://dcleaks.com:80/index.php/the-united-states-republican-party/" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">through archive.org</a>.</font></p><figure name="3c54" id="3c54" class="graf graf--figure graf-after--p" style="margin: 43px 0px 0px; position: relative; clear: both; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; user-select: auto; z-index: 100; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="aspectRatioPlaceholder is-locked" style="position: relative; width: 700px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 700px; max-height: 480px;"><div class="aspectRatioPlaceholder-fill" style="padding-bottom: 480.188px;"><div class="progressiveMedia js-progressiveMedia graf-image is-canvasLoaded is-imageLoaded" data-image-id="12Kx4W_XOKaFugnhPoIdo3Q.jpeg" data-width="1184" data-height="812" data-action="zoom" data-action-value="12Kx4W_XOKaFugnhPoIdo3Q.jpeg" data-scroll="native" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 700px; height: 480px; margin: auto; box-sizing: border-box; background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); transition: background 0.2s; cursor: zoom-in; max-width: 100%;"><canvas class="progressiveMedia-canvas js-progressiveMedia-canvas" width="75" height="51" style="display: block; vertical-align: baseline; position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 700px; height: 480px; margin: auto; box-sizing: border-box; visibility: hidden; opacity: 0; backface-visibility: hidden; transition: visibility 0s linear 0.5s, opacity 0.1s 0.4s;"><img class="progressiveMedia-image js-progressiveMedia-image" data-src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/12Kx4W_XOKaFugnhPoIdo3Q.jpeg" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/12Kx4W_XOKaFugnhPoIdo3Q.jpeg" style="border: 0px; display: block; position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 700px; height: 480px; margin: auto; box-sizing: border-box; z-index: 100; visibility: visible; opacity: 1; backface-visibility: hidden; transition: visibility 0s linear 0s, opacity 0.4s 0s;" /></canvas></div></div></div></figure><p name="1d4a" id="1d4a" class="graf graf--p graf-after--figure" style="margin: 38px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Smith was collaborating with Boyle on efforts to try to force out Paul Ryan as speaker, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/300445-exclusive-trump-campaign-ceo-wanted-to-destroy-ryan" data-href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/300445-exclusive-trump-campaign-ceo-wanted-to-destroy-ryan" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">a cause shared by Bannon</a>.</font></p><p name="9bdb" id="9bdb" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Boyle was closely connected to the Trump campaign. After Trump was elected, Boyle was granted <a href="https://www.axios.com/breitbart-reporter-to-interview-president-trump-in-oval-office-2285267117.html" data-href="https://www.axios.com/breitbart-reporter-to-interview-president-trump-in-oval-office-2285267117.html" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">a rare Oval Office interview</a>.</font></p><h4 name="6bb5" id="6bb5" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" style="letter-spacing: -0.018em; margin: 30px 0px 0px -1.5px; --baseline-multiplier:0.157; line-height: 1.22; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith has a history of funding dirty tricks against the Clintons</font></h4><p name="6f4a" id="6f4a" class="graf graf--p graf-after--h4" style="margin: 6px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith’s attempt to connect with Russian hackers wasn’t the first time he sought to cross ethical lines to damage someone with the last name Clinton. In the 1990s, Smith “<a href="http://observer.com/1998/03/gingrich-money-man-peter-smith-helped-david-brock-sock-clinton/" data-href="http://observer.com/1998/03/gingrich-money-man-peter-smith-helped-david-brock-sock-clinton/" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">was behind the so-called <b>‘Troopergate’ affair</b></a>, in which four state troopers who served on Mr. Clinton’s security detail when he was Governor of Arkansas charged that he had used them to procure women for sex.”</font></p><p name="806b" id="806b" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Smith brought the story to <b style="">David Brock, </b>then a right-wing reporter with the American Spectator.</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Eventually, Smith admitted in 1998 “to the Chicago Sun-Times that he had spent about $ 80,000 to get negative information about Clinton into the mainstream press.” The payments went to the troopers and Brock.</font></p><p name="c724" id="c724" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><b style="">The story “led to the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit</b> against Clinton and to special prosecutor Kenneth Starr’s investigation into whether Clinton had sex in the White House with an intern,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.[--> IMPEACHMENT FOR PERJURY [TRAP]</font></p><p name="9e07" id="9e07" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just as he told the WSJ about his efforts to collaborate with the Russians to obtain Clinton emails, Smith claimed he was acting independently.</font></p><h4 name="625b" id="625b" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" style="letter-spacing: -0.018em; margin: 30px 0px 0px -1.5px; --baseline-multiplier:0.157; line-height: 1.22; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith claimed a connection to the Trump campaign</font></h4><p name="18b1" id="18b1" class="graf graf--p graf-after--h4" style="margin: 6px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith’s history suggests he may have been in contact with the Trump campaign. This is also consistent with what Smith told potential collaborators as he sought hacked emails.</font></p><p name="5824" id="5824" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a document Smith used for recruiting others to the effort, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-activist-who-sought-clinton-emails-cited-trump-campaign-officials-1498872923" data-href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-activist-who-sought-clinton-emails-cited-trump-campaign-officials-1498872923" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">Smith listed four members of the Trump campaign</a>: Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Sam Clovis and Michael Flynn. He said that he was working “in coordination to the extent permitted as an independent expenditure” with the officials.</font></p><p name="f4c2" id="f4c2" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Bannon denied ever hearing of Smith, but we know that Smith was in contact with one of his most prominent reporters. Conway admitted she knew Smith but but said she hadn’t spoken to him recently. Clovis and Flynn did not comment.</font></p><h4 name="9281" id="9281" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" style="letter-spacing: -0.018em; margin: 30px 0px 0px -1.5px; --baseline-multiplier:0.157; line-height: 1.22; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith had information that suggests he was in contact with the Trump campaign</font></h4><p name="27ca" id="27ca" class="graf graf--p graf-after--h4" style="margin: 6px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith’s activities were exposed after he contacted a UK security expert named Matt Tait. In a blog post detailing his interactions with Smith, Tait says Smith seemed <a href="https://lawfareblog.com/time-i-got-recruited-collude-russians" data-href="https://lawfareblog.com/time-i-got-recruited-collude-russians" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">well-informed about the inner workings of the Trump campaign</a>.:</font></p><blockquote name="26e2" id="26e2" class="graf graf--blockquote graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px -23px; border-left: 3px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); padding-left: 20px; padding-bottom: 2px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Although it wasn’t initially clear to me how independent Smith’s operation was from Flynn or the Trump campaign, it was </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">immediately apparent that Smith was both well connected within the top echelons of the campaign and he seemed to know both Lt. Gen. Flynn and his son well. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Smith routinely talked about the goings on at the top of the Trump team, offering deep insights into the bizarre world at the top of the Trump campaign. Smith told of Flynn’s deep dislike of DNI Clapper, whom Flynn blamed for his dismissal by President Obama. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Smith told of Flynn’s moves to position himself to become CIA Director under Trump, but also that Flynn had been persuaded that the Senate confirmation process would be prohibitively difficult. He would instead therefore become National Security Advisor should Trump win the election, Smith said.</span></font></blockquote><p name="93e5" id="93e5" class="graf graf--p graf-after--blockquote" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is, of course, exactly what happened. (After being named National Security Adviser, Flynn was forced to resign after lying about his conversations with Russian officials.)</font></p><h4 name="547d" id="547d" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" style="letter-spacing: -0.018em; margin: 30px 0px 0px -1.5px; --baseline-multiplier:0.157; line-height: 1.22;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Smith set up a shell company ‘to avoid campaign reporting’</font></h4><p name="5e7d" id="5e7d" class="graf graf--p graf-after--h4" style="margin: 6px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to Tait, Smith said he set up a shell corporation in Delaware, KLS Research, “<a href="https://lawfareblog.com/time-i-got-recruited-collude-russians" data-href="https://lawfareblog.com/time-i-got-recruited-collude-russians" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">to avoid campaign reporting</a>.” This comment suggests Smith may have been paid by an entity operating under the Federal Election Commission that is required to disclose their expenditures. This could mean either a campaign or a Super PAC.</font></p><h4 name="4022" id="4022" class="graf graf--h4 graf-after--p" style="letter-spacing: -0.018em; margin: 30px 0px 0px -1.5px; --baseline-multiplier:0.157; line-height: 1.22; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The cause of Smith’s death is unknown</font></h4><p name="4227" id="4227" class="graf graf--p graf-after--h4" style="margin: 6px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith died about 10 days after talking to the Wall Street Journal reporter Shane Harris. While there is no evidence of foul play, and Smith was 81 years old, the cause of his death is unknown and <a href="http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?pid=185474380" data-href="http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?pid=185474380" class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" rel="noopener" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.44); background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-repeat: repeat-x; background-size: 2px 0.1em; background-position: 0px 1.07em;">not discussed in his obituary</a>.</font></p><p /><figure name="55de" id="55de" class="graf graf--figure graf-after--p graf--trailing" data-scroll="native" style="margin: 43px 0px 0px; position: relative; clear: both; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; user-select: auto; z-index: 100; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="aspectRatioPlaceholder is-locked" style="position: relative; width: 700px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 700px; max-height: 350px;" /></figure><p /><p /><p /><p /><p name="4c41" id="4c41" class="graf graf--p graf-after--p" style="margin: 29px 0px 0px; --baseline-multiplier:0.179; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: 1.58; letter-spacing: -0.003em; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On MSNBC, Harris said he tried to find out how Smith died. “I should say we do not know how he died. We made multiple attempts, both with family members and with associates of his, as well as government officials in the town where he lived, to try and determine his cause of death, and we were unsuccessful,” Harris said.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><div class="text text-1 parbase section" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="line-height: 1.8; margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On Thursday, the <em>Wall Street Journal </em><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-operative-sought-clinton-emails-from-hackers-implied-a-connection-to-flynn-1498770851?mod=e2tw" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> the makings of a potential bombshell: During the presidential campaign, a longtime GOP operative claiming to work with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn attempted to collude with who he believed to be Russian hackers in order to procure thousands of emails deleted from Hillary Clinton’s personal server.</b> The reporting by the <em>Journal</em>’s Shane Harris stops well short of connecting the dots to explicit coordination between Flynn and the Russians, but he adds a number of new data points to the conversation—and none of them look good for the Trump White House.</font></p></div><div class="text-2 text parbase section"><p style="line-height: 1.8; margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The GOP operative in question is <b>Peter W. Smith,</b> who told the <em>Journal</em> during an interview last month that he began shopping around for the some<b> 33,000 deleted Clinton emails i</b>n early September 2016, two months before Election Day. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Smith’s efforts came in the wake of the WikiLeaks </span><a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/07/22/wikileaks_dnc_email_trove_includes_credit_cards_numbers_and_ssns.html" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">release</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> of hacked Democratic National Committee emails that July and a month before the organization’s release of emails hacked from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta in October. “Mr. Smith, a private-equity executive from Chicago active in Republican politics, said he assembled a group of technology experts, lawyers and a Russian-speaking investigator based in Europe to acquire emails the group theorized might have been stolen from the private server Mrs. Clinton used as secretary of state,” according to the </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WSJ</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p></div><div class="text-3 text parbase section" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="line-height: 1.8; margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith, who died in May at the age of 81, a month after the <em>WSJ</em> interview, implied to the small circle of people he contacted for help locating the emails that he was working with Flynn, who was then a senior adviser to Donald Trump. “He said, ‘I’m talking to Michael Flynn about this—if you find anything, can you let me know?’ ” a computer-security expert who helped search hacker forums for leads told the <em>WSJ</em>. Emails sent by Smith—and reviewed by the <em>WSJ—</em>also implied Flynn was supportive of the effort to locate the Clinton emails, and went so far as to offer to arrange meetings with Flynn and his son, who worked for his dad’s company, and those he was trying to enlist to help.</font></p></div><div class="text parbase text-4 section" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="line-height: 1.8; margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here’s what Smith's efforts netted him (via the <em>WSJ)</em>:</font></p></div><div class="text parbase text-5 section"><blockquote style="margin: 0px 40px 0px 0px; border-left: 2px solid rgb(102, 0, 51); padding-left: 18px; line-height: 2; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the interview with the Journal, Mr. Smith said he and his colleagues found five groups of hackers who claimed to possess Mrs. Clinton’s deleted emails, including two groups he determined were Russians.</font></blockquote></div><div class="text text-6 parbase section" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><blockquote style="margin: 0px 40px 0px 0px; border-left: 2px solid rgb(102, 0, 51); padding-left: 18px; line-height: 2; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“We knew the people who had these were probably around the Russian government,” Mr. Smith said.</b></font></blockquote></div><div class="text parbase text-7 section" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><blockquote style="margin: 0px 40px 0px 0px; border-left: 2px solid rgb(102, 0, 51); padding-left: 18px; line-height: 2; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Smith said after vetting batches of emails offered to him by hacker groups last fall, he couldn’t be sure enough of their authenticity to leak them himself. “We told all the groups to give them to WikiLeaks,” he said. WikiLeaks has never published those emails or claimed to have them. Mr. Smith and one of his associates said they had a line of communication with Mr. Flynn and his consulting company …</font></blockquote></div><div class="text parbase text-8 section" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><blockquote style="margin: 0px 40px 0px 0px; border-left: 2px solid rgb(102, 0, 51); padding-left: 18px; line-height: 2; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">… The operation Mr. Smith described is consistent with information that has been examined by U.S. investigators probing Russian interference in the elections. Those investigators have examined reports from intelligence agencies that describe Russian hackers discussing how to obtain emails from Mrs. Clinton’s server and then transmit them to Mr. Flynn via an intermediary, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the intelligence. It isn’t clear who that intermediary might have been or whether Mr. Smith’s operation was the one allegedly under discussion by the Russian hackers. The reports were compiled during the same period when Mr. Smith’s group was operating, according to the officials.</font></blockquote></div><div class="text parbase text-9 section"><p style="line-height: 1.8; margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Harris’ reporting is presumably the opening salvo in this line of investigation that, for the first time, implies explicit collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. A Trump campaign official said Smith didn’t work for the campaign and Flynn, if he was involved, was participating in a personal capacity, not as a campaign official.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> The fact that Smith didn’t officially work for the Trump campaign seems like a no-brainer for obvious reasons, but doesn’t mean he wasn’t acting at the behest of someone </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">on</em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> the campaign. Whether Flynn was acting in a personal or professional capacity, at the moment, is a distinction without a difference. Yes, at some point it would be important if he was relaying orders, or acting on behalf of someone higher up on the Trump campaign—of which there weren’t many—presumably Steve Bannon, who was leading the campaign at that point, or even the president himself.</span></font></p></div><div class="text parbase text-10 section"><p style="line-height: 1.8; margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What the </span><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Journal </em><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">story does indicate, however, is that a GOP operative who presented himself as working with Mike Flynn, a top Trump adviser with numerous dodgy Russian ties himself, actively solicited Clinton emails from hackers he believed to be Russian and assumed to be affiliated with the Russian government.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Once he obtained a stash of unverified emails presented as the deleted Clinton emails, this operative then suggested the hackers release the cache to WikiLeaks one month after the DNC WikiLeaks dump and a month before the Podesta WikiLeaks dump.</span>
</font></p></div><div class="text-11 text parbase section" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="line-height: 1.8; margin: 1em 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How involved was Flynn really? How much higher does it go in the Trump White House, if at all? These are questions that will need answers as Robert Mueller’s investigation grinds on. Flynn has exhibited a penchant for recklessness and utter dishonesty, which is, in part, why he is no longer the National Security Adviser. Will this new line of investigation bring him down? Or will it save him? In March, Flynn <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/03/30/flynn_asked_for_immunity_to_testify_on_russia_like_any_totally_not_guilty.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">asked</a> for immunity in return for his testimony on Russia. To get it, he would need to know something big, presumably that touched the president. At the time Flynn’s lawyer said of the immunity request: “General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit.” The circumstances are certainly changing, and Flynn’s version of this particular story just got a lot more valuable.</font></p></div>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">chip b culture war:</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>AMERICAN SPECTATOR</b></font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">There had been stories about Bill Clinton’s affairs in various tabloid media but an article in The American Spectator, a neoconservative magazine, raised the stakes.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The cover of the January 1994 issue of The American Spectator featured a caricature of Bill Clinton sneaking down a moonlit alley with the headline: “His Cheatin’ Heart:<b>David Brock</b> in Little Rock.” Reporter David Brock had already gained a reputation for cutthroat journalism for his March 1992 attack piece, “The Real Anita Hill,” and he returned to that mode in his 1994 article “Living with the Clintons: Bill’s Arkansas bodyguards tell the story the press missed.”</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The Brock article is long on gossip and hearsay and short on facts corroborated outside the circle of troopers. Several years later, Brock wrote an “open letter” published in Esquire magazine where he apologized for the Troopergate article and said the troopers’ greed and anger had motivated their stories. One trooper later changed his story.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Buried on page 26 of the original Brock article was a paragraph mentioning a “Paula” who allegedly was taken to Clinton’s hotel room. Neither a date nor a conference name was mentioned. Nonetheless, Paula Jones stepped forward and claimed her reputation had been sullied. The rest is history.</b></font>

 </font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">His Cheatin' Heart</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>During this period the editor of The American Spectator was R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., author of Boy Clinton: The Political Biography, published by Regnery.</b>Scaife’s foundations gave $2.4 million to The American Spectator Education Foundation while it was running anti-Clinton articles. The foundation launched the “Arkansas Project,” financing information-gathering operations involving reporters, private investigators, former law enforcement officers, and political operatives. Public tax records of the foundation were obtained by Joe Conason at the New York Observer, who discovered that $1.7 million of the Scaife funds between 1993 and 1996 had been reported as legal fees but apparently used for the “Arkansas Project.”</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Some $35,000 of these funds ended up with Parker Dozhier, who owns a fishing camp in Arkansas. One witness for Starr, David Hale, “was staying at Dozhier’s fishing cabin complex in Hot Springs, Ark., between 1994 and 1996.” Two former friends of Dozhier claim he made small cash payments to Hale, but Dozhier denies that claim. Dozhier, however, provided free accommodations to Hale. Dozhier served as a conduit for information on Whitewater from Hale and others to investigators, reporters, and representatives from The American Spectator<b>. Theodore Olson, a director at the Spectator Foundation, was Hale’s lawyer in 1995 and 1996. Olson is Ken Starr’s former law partner. </b>A grand jury is considering if illegalities were committed.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Other potential witnesses against Clinton were clearly in the cash pipeline. According to Boston Globe reporter John Aloysius Farrell:</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>…Peter W. Smith</b>, a wealthy Chicago businessman and supporter of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, paid thousands of dollars to the Arkansas state troopers whose tales of Clinton’s sex life, published in the Spectator, sparked the Paula Jones case.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since the Spectator article in December 1993, it was known that unnamed conservative benefactors gave the troopers financial assistance. The Chicago Sun-Times pierced the veil of anonymity…identifying Smith—<b>a big contributor to GOPAC,</b> the political action committee once led by Gingrich— as the man who gave $6,700 each to two troopers and introduced them to David Brock, the writer of the article. Smith has given $150,000 to GOPAC in the last 12 years.</font>

<font face="Times New Roman" size="4">He told the Sun-Times he spent $80,000 in the 18 months after Clinton’s election to get stories about the president’s personal life into the media.</font>

<h3><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">THREE CLASSMATES AT CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL</font></h3>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marcus, Porter and Rosenzweig were classmates at the University of Chicago Law School, graduating in 1986. Conway met the others through the Jones case. Some of the lawyers were also involved with the Federalist Society, a legal group that includes conservative and libertarian luminaries like Starr, Robert H. Bork and Richard Epstein, a University of Chicago law professor.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Porter was the most overtly political member of the group, having worked on the staff of Vice President Quayle and on the Bush-Quayle campaign, where he did opposition research.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Porter was also an assoc</b><span times="times" new="new" font-size="font-size:" style=" font-family: ;"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>iate of Peter W. Smith, </b>62, a Chicago financier who was once the chairman of College Young Republicans and a major donor to Gopac, a conservative political group affiliated with former Speaker Newt Gingrich</span>. Beginning in 1992, Smith spent more than $80,000 to finance anti-Clinton research in an effort to persuade the mainstream press to cover Clinton's sex life. Among others, his efforts involved David Brock, the journalist who first mentioned the name 'Paula' in an article on Clinton.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Smith declined an interview request.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 1993, Brock said, Smith helped introduce him to the Arkansas state troopers who accused Clinton of using them to procure women when he was Governor of Arkansas. Brock wrote an article based on the troopers' account of Clinton's sexual escapades that was published in the January 1994 issue of The American Spectator, a conservative magazine. According to Brock, Smith wanted to establish a fund for the troopers, in case they suffered retribution. Brock said he opposed payments because they would undermine the troopers' credibility.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">To allay his concerns, Brock said, Smith urged him to speak to Porter, who was then working at Kirkland & Ellis, the Chicago law firm that employed Starr in its Washington office. Brock said he had hoped his talk with Porter would put an end to any planned payments to the troopers, but Smith did pay them and their lawyers $22,600.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 1992, Smith also paid Brock $5,000 to research another bit of Arkansas sex lore regarding Clinton, a rumor that has since proved to be baseless.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Brock did not pursue an article.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Brock's trooper article in The American Spectator mentioned a woman identified as 'Paula,' and in May 1994, Ms. Jones filed her lawsuit against President Clinton. Ms. Jones's lawyers of record were from the Washington area, Gilbert K. Davis and Joseph Cammarata, whom Marcus had helped recruit.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During the time that Clinton made the trip to the Soviet Union he was attending Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. No evidence has ever come to light showing that he did anything improper during his Soviet trip.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Smith, a Chicago investment banker,</b> discussed probing Clinton's Soviet trip in a meeting with other conservative activists, sources said. The sources, two of whom participated in the discussions, said that Clinton's trip was only one of a number of issues that Smith thought worthy of investigation.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Other topics that Smith discussed, the sources said, included allegations that Clinton, while governor of Arkansas, ordered state law-enforcement officials to turn a blind eye to a <a href="http://www.salonmagazine.com/news/1998/03/26news.html">cocaine smuggling ring.</a></span> Two official investigations of the matter -- by the House Banking Committee and the CIA Inspector General -- have found no wrongdoing by the president.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith did not return Salon's telephone calls yesterday.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last week, the New York Observer revealed that Smith spent at least $80,000 to fund an investigation of the president's sexual conduct, from September 1992 to March 1994. Those efforts were to prove instrumental in the publication of the so-called Arkansas <a href="http://www.salonmagazine.com/news/1998/03/24news.html">"Troopergate"</a> story.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was Smith who introduced then-American Spectator reporter David Brock to the troopers, who told salacious stories about Clinton's private life that appeared in the Spectator and the Los Angeles Times in December 1993. Smith also promised two of the troopers high-paying jobs if they were fired for speaking to the press. And in March 1994, he wrote a $20,000 check that was split between two of the troopers and their attorney.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Over the last decade, according to Federal Election Commission records, Smith has made more than $150,000 in contributions to GOPAC, the conservative political committee once chaired by House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Smith has also been a top donor to the Republican National Committee.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith was assisted in his efforts to promote the Troopergate story by political consultant Eddie Mahe, a close friend and advisor to House Speaker Gingrich. Mahe has also served as a consultant to GOPAC.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an interview Monday, Mahe said he received $25,000 in consulting fees from Smith over a two-year period for assisting in the Troopergate effort. He also provided new details about his role in the affair, saying he was paid by Smith to help attract interest in the story by a major news organization.</font>

<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/1998/04/07newsb.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://www.salon.com/news/1998/04/07newsb.html</font></a></p>