Top Kerry Aide, Key Conduit for Dossier, Once Worked for Russian Oligarch, as Did Steele

Deripaska tapped the services of key promoters of the Trump-Russia collusion theory, including Christopher Steele and, below left, Jonathan Winer, a top aide to Obama Secretary of State John Kerry.

Jonathan Winer, a former top aide to Secretary of State John Kerry who was a key conduit for disseminating the discredited Steele dossier in the U.S. government, worked as a lobbyist for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in years preceding the Russiagate affair.

The Senate report also found that at different times ex-British spy Christopher Steele had worked for the powerful oligarch with ties to President Vladimir Putin, and sent scores of reports from his intelligence firm on to Winer, who admitted to the panel destroying many of them before leaving the State Department.

Steele used his in at Foggy Bottom to try to improve diplomatic attitudes toward Deripaska, whom the Senate Intelligence Committee describes as "a key implementer of Russian influence operations around the globe." The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has accused Deripaska of "Holding assets and laundering funds on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin."

Early in 2016 - not long before Steele began creating opposition research on Trump for Fusion GPS - Steele reached out to his friend at the Justice Department, Bruce Ohr.

Page 883 of the Senate report states that Steele emailed Ohr to say he had heard from Deripaska's lawyers, Paul H[auser] and Adam W[aldman], that the oligarch had been "Granted an official visa to visit the US this week." Steele urged Ohr to promote Deripaska's trip to the States: "[Y]ou should be pushing at an open door," Steele wrote.

After describing Steele as "An old friend," Winer told Cunningham that Steele was in town for a few days.
 

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/08/25/top_kerry_aide_key_conduit_for_dossier_worked_for_russian_oligarch_as_did_steele_124962.html