President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Saturday and alleged that he was the victim of a conspiracy by US government agencies who are trying to dig up dirt on him.
‘According to the [New York Times], a Russian sold phony secrets on “Trump” to the US. Asking price was $10 million, brought down to $1 million to be paid over time. I hope people are now seeing & understanding what is going on here. It is all now starting to come out – DRAIN THE SWAMP!’ Trump tweeted on Saturday.
Later in the day, Trump tweeted a quote he heard from a pundit on Fox News who alleged that the Obama administration used the FBI and the State Department to find damaging information about him just before the 2016 election.
‘My view is that not only has Trump been vindicated in the last several weeks about the mishandling of the Dossier and the lies about the Clinton/DNC Dossier, it shows that he’s been victimized,’ Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch said on Fox News.
President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Saturday and alleged that he was the victim of a conspiracy by US government agencies who are trying to dig up dirt on him
Later in the day, Trump tweeted a quote he heard from a pundit on Fox News who alleged that the Obama administration used the FBI and the State Department to find damaging information about him just before the 2016 election
The head of Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton, alleged on Fox News that the Obama administration ‘used the FBI and the State Department’ to ‘dig up dirt’ on Trump
‘He’s been victimized by the Obama Administration who were using all sorts of agencies, not just the FBI & DOJ, now the State Department to dig up dirt on him in the days leading up to the Election.
‘Comey had conversations with Donald Trump, which I don’t believe were accurate…he leaked information.’
Judicial Watch is a right-wing advocacy group that has been accused of peddling unfounded conspiracy theories about Democrats, according to Bloomberg.
Trump and Fitton were referring to a New York Times article which said that US intelligence officials desperate to get back stolen cyberweapons reportedly paid $100,000 to a Russian operative who claimed he was not only in possession of the hacking tools but had compromising information on Trump.
According to the Times on Friday, the Russian took the money but failed to turn over the stolen material or the dirt on Trump.
The outlet reports that the CIA began meeting with the unidentified spy early last year after he claimed to have cyberweapons stolen from the National Security Agency.
The man also told American officials that he had images of Trump hanging out with hookers in Moscow in 2013.
Trump’s tweet about the New York Times story was in reference to a report which said that US spies reportedly paid a Russian spy $100,000 after he claimed to have cyberweapons stolen from the National Security Agency
The Russian also said he had alleged photos of Trump (above) with three hookers in Mowsow
Several US intelligence officials who spoke with the Times made it clear to the outlet that they were not interested in the Trump dirt but wanted the stolen NSA hacking tools, which were designed to break into computer networks in Russia, China and other US rivals.
The materials were stolen in 2017 by a group which calls itself Shadow Brokers.
The Times reports that American spies had their doubts about the Russian operative, who was known to have ties to Russian intelligence and cybercriminals, but decided to arrange a deal with him.
The man initially asked for $10 million in exchange for the information, but later changed it to $1 million.
After months of negotiations, US intelligence met the Russian spy in September at a Berlin TK to give him the first installment of his payment – $100,000.
Instead of coming through on his end of the deal, the Russian spy handed over a 15-second video that showed an American businessman speaking to two women in a hotel room. There was no sound in the video and no evidence the man was Trump.
The Russian took the money but never turned anything over. The cyberweapons were stolen from the NSA last year
To keep the deal from ending, the Russian also said he had information on Trump associates. In October and December he delivered documents he alleged contained information which implicated Trump’s associates, but the Times reports that most of the information the documents included were already public knowledge.
The Russian also said he was holding on to the NSA cyberweapons ‘at the orders of senior Russian intelligence officials’.
Fearing the man might have been working with the Russian government and purposefully providing false information to create discord in the American government, US officials cut ties with the operative.
Earlier this year, the Times reports, they gave him one more chance but he still did not follow through on providing the hacking tools and information he claimed to have.
Officials told the man to either leave Western Europe or face criminal charges. The Russian decided to leave.