Harper Thorpe
4 min readFeb 15, 2018

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Kim, I thought it might help others respond, as you say “like I did” by annotating your response for meaningfulness and accuracy. Here we go:

Fusion GPS/Sedition

  • Hillary Clinton’s Campaign (HRC) and The Democratic National Committee (DNC) paid Fusion GPS for a salacious dossier written by UK former-spy, Christopher Steele, on then Republican candidate Donald Trump. (Hyperbolic: I don’t think you can find anything written anywhere that says a person or party contracted/paid for a result called a “salacious dossier”. Those words were used by Comey when he informed Trump of the dossier’s contents, which — while not yet proven — have also not yet been disproven . However, it should be acknowledged Putin may have already eliminated those with any direct knowledge. We know Russians were killed, but we may never know why.)
  • This “dossier” was used by Obama’s FBI to get wire taps from a United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) to spy in America on an American candidate for President, Donald Trump. Other people wire tapped were Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort and former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. (Hyperbolic and Inaccurate: You like to say “Obama’s FBI”, but since you’ve prodiced no evidence, I assume this is more Trump-type hype. The only thing asserted by the Nunes memo is the dossier was used to surveil Carter Page. Claiming it was used to spy on Donald Trump is not accurate.)
  • These wire taps continued after the election. (I believe surveillance of Carter Page and Paul Manafort continued after the election. But you seem to be implying two things: (1) the election of Donald Trump should have halted pursuing these people with Russian ties that they’ve both acknowledged and/or lied about, and (2) that the surveillance of Manafort was justified by the dossier. Neither of these assertions has any basis in fact.)
  • Trump tweeted in March of 2017 that Obama had wire tapped him. (Are you implying we are to take Trump tweets literally and/or seriously? If so, you are going against the recommendation of all Trump spokeseople on the subject of POTUS tweets. If you believe Trump’s assertion, over years of tweets, that Obama was born in Kenya, don’t bother reading further because the logic won’t make any sense to you.)
  • Obama denied any wire taps. (Despite what you’ve implied in the prior bullets without any real evidence, there is no proof Obama, or the FBI on his behalf, wiretapped Trump. By the way, even Trump reminded us he put “wiretapping” in quotes.)
  • Liberal media mocked Trump for the suggestion. (Except as a statement intended to rile Trump’s base, what’s this got to do with anything? It hasn’t been proven Trump was right about being targeted for wiretapping or being personally wiretapped. I suppose it is possible Trump was caught in the same “sanctions” conversation Mike Flynn had with Kislyak and lied about, but no one has ever produced evidence Trump was the target.
  • Then FBI Director James Comey denied any wire taps and said he looked deeply into the FBI and found no evidence to support the claim. (Again, you’re still implying the Q&A was about wiretaps of Trump, and until you move away from this unproven assertion, most of what you’ve written here is bogus. I’m sure you’re not inviting others to put forth their arguments in this fashion.)
  • By September 2017, it was revealed to the public that Donald Trump and his campaign chairman, Paul Manafort were wiretapped by Obama’s FBI when James Comey was its Director, just as Trump said. (Half-truth. In this time period, it became known Paul Manafort was under surveillance — not Trump.)
  • Criminal charges are being considered against Fusion GPS Dossier author Christopher Steel, who 2 Senators say lied to Federal Authorities. (“Considered” yes, but “proven” no. There is also “consideration” of charges against many people who have yet to be charged with anything. This is why various investigations are ongoing.)
  • Paying for a non-substantiated dossier from one party as opposition research against a Presidential opponent, and using this paid for dossier, to manufacture the basis to wire tap the opponent before and after the Presidential contest in order to undermine his Presidency and/or frame him for “Russian Collusion”-means that HRC, the DNC, Obama and the guilty parties inside the FBI are guilty of Seditious Conspiracy. (Your conclusion — that someone is guilty of Seditious Conspiracy — is based on your primary, and unproven, assertion that Trump was the target of surveillance. Then on that pig, you try to apply the “only justified based on the dossier “ lipstick. Nope, still a pig.

You’ve pressed your readers to produce something you failed to deliver in your example of “how it’s done”. That said, Trump supporters will likely embrace your emotionally, not factually, based piece (sometimes called a conspiracy theory) as a rallying cry to stop looking for Russia’s interference in our democracy and other democracies around the world.

All U.S. intelligence agencies (many with Trump appointees at the helm) are still in lockstep on this, and the remaining dissenter is Trump. To be clear, this is the same Trump, who has not directed a single agency to pursue the Russian cyber threat, is comfortable applying no more sanctions to dissuade Russia from invading our voting systems, helped his son craft the first lie told about the Trump Tower meeting with Russians, and still implies he believes Putin when Vlad says he’s not doing what our team has proven he’s done.

Lastly, I’d be interested to see you rewrite your arguments above to the standards you’re trying to hold your readers to. If you believe your arguments proved a Seditious Conspiracy happened, then no argument against your position, or in favor of collusion having occurred, will satisfy you. And we’re all wasting our time.

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Harper Thorpe

Engaged citizen, poet, musician, humorist, family man. I value irreverence, soulfulness, and a big heart. Offering insight, introspection, shock & aw shucks!