{"id":35512,"date":"2018-06-26T07:46:18","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T12:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=35512"},"modified":"2018-06-26T07:46:18","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T12:46:18","slug":"why-did-james-comey-issue-stand-down-order-on-imminent-deal-with-julian-assange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=35512","title":{"rendered":"Why Did James Comey Issue “Stand Down” Order On Imminent Deal With Julian Assange?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Why Did James Comey Issue “Stand Down” Order On Imminent Deal With Julian Assange?<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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A “stand down” order given by James Comey to kill an imminent deal between the US Government and Julian Assange preceded the largest leak in CIA history<\/a>, known as “Vault 7,” reports John Solomon of\u00a0The Hill<\/em><\/a>. Assange was willing to redact the names of CIA employees, and\u00a0also offered to provide technical evidence which would\u00a0rule out “certain parties” (such as Russia) in the DNC email hack.<\/p>\n

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In short, Comey killed advanced negotiations with\u00a0the WikiLeaks founder that would have safeguarded the lives of CIA agents who are now at risk, while also providing key evidence in the ongoing Russia investigations.\u00a0For the longer version, keep reading.<\/p>\n

In January of 2017, Julian Assange’s legal team approached Clinton-linked<\/a>\u00a0D.C. lobbyist Adam Waldman to reach out and see if anyone in the Trump administration would negotiate with the WikiLeaks founder.<\/p>\n

Waldman, who acted as an intermediary from 2009 – 2011 between\u00a0Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and the FBI, worked for Assange pro bono. Assange’s bargaining chip was a massive trove of CIA technical documents known as “Vault 7,” which detailed\u00a0the agency’s massive cyber-warfare arsenal.<\/p>\n

After Assange’s team made contact, Waldman reached out to\u00a0Bruce Ohr<\/strong> – a DOJ official who would later be\u00a0demoted in December, 2017 for failing to disclose secret meetings with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson. Bruce’s wife, Nellie Ohr<\/strong>\u00a0was hired by Fusion GPS as part of an ongoing anti-Trump effort. Fusion also produced the 35-page “Steele Dossier,” written by former MI6 spy Christopher Steele.<\/p>\n

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[As an aside, Waldman also promised Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) access to Steele in late March of 2017, which fell through weeks later after Steele\u00a0got cold feet. So Waldman is\u00a0a “deep-state\u00a0middleman” of sorts.]<\/p>\n

Waldman and Ohr would meet in person\u00a0on Feb. 3, 2017 in Washington, while\u00a0Waldman and Assange met three times in London.<\/p>\n