Tonight's BOOM: Peter Smith listed Bannon, Conway and Clovis, besides Flynn, in a recruiting doc.

[MelissaB]

GOP Activist Who Sought Clinton Emails Cited Trump Campaign Officials

Peter W. Smith listed Bannon, Conway and Clovis, besides Flynn, in a recruiting document; his purpose isn’t clear and there’s no indication he asked for or received any coordination with them

... snip

Officials identified in the document include Steve Bannon, now chief strategist for President Donald Trump; Kellyanne Conway, former campaign manager and now White House counselor; Sam Clovis, a policy adviser to the Trump campaign and now a senior adviser at the Agriculture Department; and retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, who was a campaign adviser and briefly was national security adviser in the Trump administration.

Mr. Bannon said he never met with Mr. Smith or anyone affiliated with a limited-liability company, KLS Research LLC, that the document said had been established for its mission. “Never heard of KLS Research or Peter Smith,” Mr. Bannon said.

Ms. Conway said she knew Mr. Smith from Republican politics but hadn’t spoken to him in years. “I never met with him” during the campaign, Ms. Conway said. “There were no calls, no meetings, no nothing.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/gop-activist-who-sought-clinton-emails-cited-trump-campaign-officials-1498872923

[blogslut]

1. kicksies

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. On MSNBC right now!

[Squinch]

3. I don't understand this and the rest of the article is behind a firewall. What is meant by

"included in a recruiting document?"

[panader0]

7. I believe Smith was trying to recruit hackers.

[NCTraveler]

14. We already know Republicans successfully recruited hackers..

For worse things than this.

[NCTraveler]

15. I should have said..

Successfully reached out for the help of hackers.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Tune in to Maddow's show on MSNBC right now.

They will be talking about this after the break, w/ Michael Issikoff.

[panader0]

4. Oh no, not Kellyanne too!

(Delish)

[GallopingGhost]

30. Not Miss Blueberry Princess!

What is this world coming to?

[calimary]

34. The very Bowling Green Massacre Majesty herself!

[sarah FAILIN]

5. Sure is lucky for Trump that Smith died

Very convenient...

[janx]

22. I'm wondering if Smith wasn't unwell at the time of the interview and

Harris waited to publish it... ?

[sarah FAILIN]

48. I thought he said he had expected to do more interviews

It sounded like he only got 1 time. The guy was old though.

[NCTraveler]

6. I don't see a boom there. Nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. Maddow and Isikoff apparently do.

[NCTraveler]

21. I really wouldn't know.

I don't really hang on to sensational editorialist. I have a lot of respect for Maddow but this isn't big as it stands.

[Not Ruth]

11. Technically, the boom is from a baby cannon

Link to tweet

[grantcart]

12. The allegations of collusion are now tied to members of the campaign.

[NCTraveler]

18. Not with what is being reported here.

The manner in which they are stating this doesn't support that claim.

[sarah FAILIN]

13. I would if Smith were not dead.

It shows that the activity was an integral part of the teams work, not just Flynn being a lone ranger like they are claiming.

With Smith dead, doubt it is provable.

[MelissaB]

17. The dead dude listed senior Trump campaign members in a recruitment doc.

[NCTraveler]

19. That sums it up. Nt

[MelissaB]

24. And... those campaign officials are currently in the White House

[american_ideals]

32. Agreed. No concrete links.

But let's wait to see what Matt Tait says on Lawfare tonight.

[grantcart]

9. Now Kellyanne has to get an attorney. lololol

[AntiFascist]

16. The walls are closing in...

not that surprising that these media scum are involved.

[C_U_L8R]

20. Alright... now we're naming names.

Let's see who cracks first. Kellyanne is a coin-operated mercenary, but Bannon may prove to be a total chickenshit when some pressure is applied.

[HipChick]

25. Jared is hold ing Bannon back..

time to throw under the bus so he can be great....

[MelissaB]

23. Rachel Maddow clip discussing

Link to tweet

[MedusaX]

26. Flynn can ... likely already has... validate the degree of involvement for each member

Basically this is the drip signaling to KAC; Pres Bannon etc....
That they need to get legal representation... because although it does not directly explain their roles... they know that Flynn can provide first hand knowledge and probably copies of all related communications & docs...

[orangecrush]

27. K&R

Have you had enough yet, America?

[Not Ruth]

28. Louise Mensch believes that Trump is done, she will focus on other priorities, meaning Russia

Link to tweet

[FailureToCommunicate]

29. K & R

[MelissaB]

31. Twitter is exploding with how Peter Smith is connected to many in the WH

Going back to the Clinton scandals, he was friends with David Bossie and Kellyanne Conway's husband.

Link to tweet

Bannon denied knowing Smith, but Smith communicated Matthew Boyle at Breitbart per this '16 article

Link to tweet

Conway's husband worked with Smith when he funded Paula Jones suit against B Clinton. He's no stranger to them.

Link to tweet

[calimary]

35. The same bad pennies keep on turning up.

[madville]

33. What's the smoking gun?

The guy communicated with someone (not bannon) at Breitbart and he met Conway's husband 20 years ago during Bill Clinton's impeachment? Was there any actual connection in the last few years?

[MelissaB]

36. This might help.

https://lawfareblog.com/time-i-got-recruited-collude-russians

[Not Ruth]

44. Tombstone should read "81 year old up to no good on the Dark Web"

Towards the end of one of our conversations, Smith made his pitch. He said that his team had been contacted by someone on the “dark web”; that this person had the emails from Hillary Clinton’s private email server (which she had subsequently deleted), and that Smith wanted to establish if the emails were genuine. If so, he wanted to ensure that they became public prior to the election. What he wanted from me was to determine if the emails were genuine or not.

It is no overstatement to say that my conversations with Smith shocked me. Given the amount of media attention given at the time to the likely involvement of the Russian government in the DNC hack, it seemed mind-boggling for the Trump campaign—or for this offshoot of it—to be actively seeking those emails. To me this felt really wrong.

In my conversations with Smith and his colleague, I tried to stress this point: if this dark web contact is a front for the Russian government, you really don’t want to play this game. But they were not discouraged. They appeared to be convinced of the need to obtain Clinton’s private emails and make them public, and they had a reckless lack of interest in whether the emails came from a Russian cut-out. Indeed, they made it quite clear to me that it made no difference to them who hacked the emails or why they did so, only that the emails be found and made public before the election.

In the end, I never saw the actual materials they’d been given, and to this day, I don’t know whether there were genuine emails, or whether Smith and his associates were deluding themselves.

[wishstar]

37. Per WSJ, US Intelligence reported Russian hackers were trying to get Clinton email info to Flynn

https://www.lawfareblog.com/time-i-got-recruited-collude-russians

The source for the Peter Smith information in WSJ article has written his own article just released tonight explaining details behind the story and that to him smoking gun in WSJ article involves US intelligence linking Russian hackers to Flynn:

" We couldn’t show that Smith had been in contact with actual Russians. And while I believed—as I still do—that he was operating with some degree of coordination with the campaign, that was at least a little murky too. The story just didn’t make much sense—that is, until the Journal yesterday published the critical fact that U.S. intelligence has reported that Russian hackers were looking to get emails to Flynn through a cut-out during the Summer of 2016, and this was no idle speculation on my part."

[madville]

38. Article says it's "murky" and "speculation"

No real facts, just guesses, I'm not that gullible to buy into these blogs anymore.

[alcibiades_mystery]

41. A derp a derp a derp a derp

Keep trying.

[DesertRat]

39. Tick Tick Tick...Boom!

Link to tweet

[alcibiades_mystery]

40. Smith? Never hearda him!

Cheap thugs.

[Merlot]

42. "no nothing" sounds about right.

A double negative is a positive.

[mfcorey1]

43. Lawyer up, Kellyanne! LOL Ms. Untouchable!

[sfwriter]

45. Peter Smiths emails were "hacked"

I've been trying to find out more about Smith...

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/us/obama-russia-election-hack.html

Way back in December...

"The messages stolen from Republicans have drawn little attention because most are routine business emails from local Republican Party officials in several states, congressional staff members and party activists.

Among those whose emails were posted was Peter W. Smith, who runs a venture capital firm in Chicago and has long been active in “opposition research” for the Republican Party. He said he was unaware that his emails had been hacked until he was called by a reporter on Thursday.

He said he believes that his material came from a hack of the Illinois Republican Party.

“I’m not upset at all,” he said. “I try in my communications, quite frankly, not to say anything that would be embarrassing if made public.”"

[sfwriter]

46. More on Smith... Ties to "vast right-wing conspiracy"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/peter-smith-anti-clinton-conspiracies_us_59558460e4b05c37bb7d2dff

He was behind Troopergate, Linda Tripp, even recruited David Brock, back in the day.

Conway's husband was tied to all of this as well.

[MelissaB]

47. Thanks!

[Not Ruth]

49. Malcolm Nance dismisses, possibly Team Deza

Link to tweet