Trump Campaign Adviser Reportedly Approached Gov’t Agencies About Emails ‘He Thought Were’ Hillary’s
Exclusive: A Trump foreign policy adviser played a key role in the pursuit of possible Hillary Clinton emails from the dark web before the 2016 election https://t.co/UY6KIO0xvl pic.twitter.com/Q89AV36Lkv
— CNN (@CNN) April 6, 2018
There’s new reporting tonight about another Trump campaign adviser that apparently approached the FBI with what “he thought were Hillary Clinton‘s deleted emails.”
According to CNN, Joseph Schmitz––a former DOD inspector general––tried sharing info he thought may have been a smoking gun:
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.
Officials interviewed him but both State and the IG “declined to review or accept the information.”
Schmitz was one of a few people Trump named in March 2016 as being a foreign policy adviser, on a list that you may remember also included Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.
[image via screengrab]
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