A DU wild speculation thread - Who was the "informant"?

[underpants]

Within the Trump campaign.
I can't do this as a poll because there are too many names and many we aren't familiar with.

Was it a plant?
Was it a concerned citizen?
Was it just a passer through who "saw something, said something"?
Was it a government briefing/liaison/security person?
Was it campaign internal fighting and backstabbing?

Take a wild guess at who you think it might be.
"Someone we aren't familiar with" is obviously an option.

[Stallion]

1. Melania

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Steve Bannon.

He didn't join the campaign as a plant, but he thought it would be fun to add a little more chaos and deconstruction to the campaign by ratting it out to the FBI. I have no particular reason for that guess, except that I think it would be awesome in so many karmic ways if it did turn out to be him.

[underpants]

4. Aha!

That's partly why I put in the backstabbing one. Remember Bannon was from outside their bubble and this was before (I think) the Access Hollywood tape. Still no one reasonably thought he would win. Bannon had made his name household and could walk away with them in ruins/dust.

[dalton99a]

11. He should be very high on the list.

[GusBob]

3. It should be easy to find out

Someone with a conscience who committed no crime

Not too many fit that description with that crowd

[Uncle Joe]

5. It was Mini Trump and Obama was behind it

Thanks for the thread underpants

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. What particular event/story are you referring to U ?? So much leakiness ! nt

[brooklynite]

7. How about: "there wasn't one"

Officials tell CNN that FBI 'informant' not planted inside Trump campaign

Washington (CNN)An unsupported theory circulating on Capitol Hill and conservative media outlets about an "informant" spying on the Trump campaign reached new heights Friday morning, as President Donald Trump tweeted about the "all time greatest political scandal."

But US officials tell CNN that the confidential intelligence source was not planted inside the campaign to provide information to investigators.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/18/politics/trump-campaign-informant/index.html

[underpants]

8. Yeah I meant to mention that too

The null set.

but I thought I kind of alluded to that in my tease questions.

[salin]

9. Baron. John Baron.

adds an interesting psychological thriller aspect to the whole speculation game.

[MGKrebs]

10. "the individual has been a source for the FBI and CIA for years."

I'm going to eliminate anyone who is still there, no good reason except that I would not expect this person to be a flaming sycophant and that's pretty much all that's left there.

Not sure if having been charged with a crime would eliminate someone, like Papadopolous, who probably doesn't have the background to have been a source for years anyway.

David Bossie, John Mashburn and Alan Cobb seem like too much the extremists to be bothered with violations of the law.

Joseph Keith Kellogg would be a good possibility except I'm not sure if he was "inner circle" enough to be useful, which goes for the rest of the "advisers" too.

Michael Glassner seems like a good candidate. Adviser to Bush and Dole, so he's likely old school and connected, and if he was appalled at what he was seeing he might drop a dime.

Carter Page seems like a good candidate, and supposedly was the subject of a FISA warrant as early as 2014.


https://ballotpedia.org/Donald_Trump_presidential_campaign_key_staff_and_advisors,_2016

[tblue37]

19. Sater has been an FBI informant for years. nt

[pnwmom]

12. IMHO, it was someone who works in a foreign country, someone who may be

American or not.

It is someone who had contact with Papadopolous or others -- and whose life is at risk from exposure, and whose other connections are at risk.

All we KNOW is that it is someone whose name is redacted in the documents Nunes has -- not that the person was part of DT's campaign.

[MGKrebs]

13. cnn is reporting that it is a US citizen.

"One of the officials said the informant is a US citizen but provided no other details on the identity" FWIW.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/18/politics/trump-campaign-informant/index.html

[pnwmom]

14. There are many US citizens who work in other countries, and there are many US citizens

who have citizenship in more than one country.

I knew a US citizen working overseas for an energy company who, decades ago, was asked to provide information to the government. We have people all over the world acting as informants in that manner.

[marylandblue]

15. We also have embedded CIA agents

Valerie Plame worked for a consulting firm that was a CIA front. Revealing her actually forced the entire operation to shut down, so we lost multiple channels just by revealing one name.

[pnwmom]

16. Right. It sounds like whoever this person is was in place for years -- probably long before

the DT campaign. And this person and all his or her connections wold be at risk if the documents are published unredacted.

[csziggy]

17. My husband thinks it could be Carter Page

His history is odd - a graduate of the US Naval Academy in the top 10% of his class. An intelligence officer for a UN peacekeeping mission. Masters in National Security at Georgetown University. Fellowship at the Council on Foreign Affairs.

Then he switches to business and worked for Merril Lynch in London and Moscow, working on deals with Gazprom and other Russian energy businesses - but no one had known who he was, even experts in Russia and Russian business contacts. Yahoo reported that "Page was being probed by US intelligence for purported back-channel ties to Russian leaders." (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/the-mystery-of-trumps-man-in-moscow-214283) While the Americans in the same fields in Russia denied knowing him, some of the Russians did.

Most people in the Trump campaign deny even knowing who Carter Page was before Trump announced his name (in Politico article above). His completely odd interviews on cable news networks have let out more information than the Trump apparatus could possibly be comfortable with.

According to a Congressional leadership staffer familiar with the intelligence briefings on Page’s trip to Russia, “the meetings did happen and that’s been established as a fact. I think the investigation is more what happened in them.” But it remained unclear, the staffer told me unprompted, what this even meant. “It’s not just did he met with them or not, but now looking into the bigger question of what the hell is going on?” said the staffer. “Is he acting as a conduit in ways that are against America’s national security interests? Wittingly or un-, I should add. It’s what’s hard to parse about this. Is he doing this with nefarious intent or is this just about guys who are thrilled to be living in a John LeCarre novel? Or are they being played by much smarter people in the Kremlin?”

This seems to be vintage Carter Page, a man whose story never quite adds up, as much as he tries to make the numbers work. But he’s also mastered the art of manipulating the distance between his story as it is and his story as he wants it to be, playing on the uncertainty in between to make himself more successful, more connected, even more evil than he really is—and to try to turn a profit off of that. “If Page using his status as ‘Trump advisor’ for personal gain, that’s another matter: Time for Page to join Twitter!” Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, tweeted after news of the investigation broke. The Russians may be feeling out the Trump campaign via Page, but Page must be loving every minute of it. After all, meeting Russia’s energy czar is an impossible dream for a would-be investor struggling to make it in the world of Russian energy—but the dream entered the realm of the possible when Trump said three words in March: “Carter Page, PhD.” Now Carter Page, PhD has found a perfect candidate to latch onto, like a pilot fish feeding off the carnage wrought by the oblivious Trump shark.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160924010026/http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/the-mystery-of-trumps-man-in-moscow-214283

Carter Page would be the perfect plant into the campaign, especially if he'd been feeding info to the US intelligence community for years as he worked with Russian energy companies. He could be the ultimate double agent!

[karynnj]

23. If so, why get a FISA warrant on him?

Especially as they are secret, it can't even be to send a message. If he were on our side, he could himself get evidence.

[csziggy]

26. Could be to give Carter Page cover

If the information might be needed as part of their cases or to obtain further FISA warrants, it would out their agent if he willingly turned it over. If it is obtained with legitimate warrants, Page's cover would not be blown plus the material could be used for evidence and additional warrants without making Page a target of the Russians.

[jpak]

18. Matcom

He's definitely been undercover for a while.

And going places.

[underpants]

22. BWAAAHAAAHAAAHAAA

[edbermac]

24. Is he still around?

I loved reading his posts.

[Kirk Lover]

20. Papastupidoulos. nt

[karynnj]

21. I suspect it was someone invisible to the Trump leaders

I would imagine it was someone low in the organization who had a clerical type role - or a coffee boy ( man or woman).

Someone intelligent and principled enough to understand what they were doing and to report it. I doubt it was anyone we ever heard about.

[trueblue2007]

25. it was an Alien ..... from planet Unicityplan !!!

[edbermac]

27. Probably someone with their nuts in Mueller's vise.

They won't be taking one for Cheeto.

[Orsino]

28. You can't fool me.

You're just going to post old video of Giuliani informing on them, right?

[SoFlaDem]

29. There were no plants.

These things about being tapped, wires and plants are the Trump idiots thinking that information is coming out that no-one could have possibly known otherwise.

There are probably informants sitting in the White House right now. Who knows who Mueller has flipped?

[unblock]

30. could easily be someone in the background.

we're so focused on the stars and the supporting actors that we forget about the people off-camera.

a staffer or a secret service person, perhaps. the person who tends to donnie's diet coke bell.

[The Polack MSgt]

31. It's trump

He has psychotic breaks and sends documents to various agencies or calls people using Norman's Mother's voice