The Steele Dossier

The Steele Dossier, long the ridicule of the far right and the symbol of some nefarious plot to bring down Trump at any cost, was actually funded by a website promoting Ted Cruz in 2015.  It was purchased and completed by the DNC and Clinton campaign after Cruz was out of the picture.

Although many of the allegations in it are salacious, they're difficult to prove.  The one claim everybody remembers -- that Trump paid Russian prostitutes to pee on the bed Obama slept in, in the Moscow Ritz-Carlton -- was witnessed only by Trump & the prostitutes and unless the Kremlin maintains a videotape of it (as claimed) it'll never be proven. Steele's source could be somebody who cannot come forward.

However, another bombshell allegation was that Cohen traveled to Prague in August of 2016 to meet with Russian government officials on behalf of Trump.  Cohen has vehemently denied ever being to the Czech Republic, even as recently as yesterday.

The reason he had to deny it yesterday is that evidence has emerged that his cellphone was in Prague in August 2016, and a separate eyewitness report says he met with Russian government officials.  If this turns out to be true -- and if Cohen 'fessed up to it behind closed doors with Mueller -- it puts the collusion charge on rock solid ground.  He could be denying it in public to avoid tipping off Trump & his allies as to how deeply they are in the shit right now.

Of course the rest of the dossier's many allegations have mostly been proven 100% true, by public reporting.  It wouldn't surprise me a bit if the whole thing turns out to be accurate.

The only caveat, as I've mentioned before, is that the Russian government would find it impossible to blackmail Trump with the tape.

The man is incapable of shame.

The Steele dossier, two years later

Quote :

many of the allegations that form the bulk of the intelligence memos have held up over time, or have proven to be at least partially true.

More about Nellie and Bruce Ohr, the Steele dossier, and Fusion GPS.  It seems to me, when the House Republican investigation into all this becomes public on December 9, it will be pointed out that candidate opposition research during a campaign -- perfectly legal and normal -- that turns up allegations that your opponent is colluding with a hostile foreign power -- abnormal, illegal and at this point fully proven -- then it is a citizen's OBLIGATION to turn this information over to the FBI for investigation.  The Ohrs did nothing wrong here.  They were patriots.

Quote :

But then the senior DOJ official [Bruce Ohr] insisted his role in providing the FBI evidence from his wife’s fellow contractor (Steele), from her boss (Simpson [Fusion GPS]) and from her as well did not constitute “working on the case.”

Ohr’s testimony also revealed that the DOJ’s internal watchdog, the inspector general (IG), was interested in his actions. “They have asked to interview me and I will talk with them,” Ohr explained.

No matter what the IG investigation finds, it is clearer today than ever before that Ohr played an essential role in feeding a Clinton-financed political opposition-research project to the FBI.

DOJ ethics rules forbid department officials from working in cases where a spouse has a financial interest, a prohibition that Bruce Ohr said he knew about when he forwarded his wife’s evidence to the FBI.

The way Ohr described it, his wife’s research was like an additional dossier assembled from Fusion GPS research to augment what Steele was separately providing the FBI.

“She (Nellie Ohr) provided me with a memory stick that included research she had done for Fusion GPS on various Russian figures,” Ohr told congressional investigators.

“And the reason she provided that information to me is, my understanding was, it related to some of the same — it related to the FBI’s Russia investigation. And she gave me that stick to give to the FBI.”

According to "Crime In Progress" the Steele dossier was leaked to the press by David Kramer, an aide to John McCain.

There goes another Republican talking point.

Reading "Crime In Progress" has caused me to pull out and reread the dossier.

Explosive stuff. Largely verified.

Actionable? Possibly not -- especially with the Russian/Republican campaign to discredit it. Too bad. It should form the CORE of the articles of impeachment, in a more perfect world.

What's this? Christopher Steele was good friends with Trump's daughter???

Tomorrow's release of the full interview could be illuminating.

Quote :

"Most of the world first heard your name about five years ago, but you stayed silent up until now. Why speak out now?" host George Stephanopoulos asked.

"I think the first and most important (reason) is that the problems we identified back in 2016 haven't gone away, and arguably have actually got worse, and I thought it was important to come and set the record straight," Steele said.

Quote :

Stephanopoulos asked why the Russians haven’t released the [pee] tape if they have it.

“It hasn’t needed to be released because I think the Russians felt they’d got pretty good value out of Donald Trump when he was president of the U.S.,” Steele replied.

Fuck yeah.

Just watched the full 64 minute interview on Hulu.  Bottom lines: the Dossier has not been disproven, in part or in whole.  The pee tape is one tiny bit of the dossier, the part which gets all the press but in the report it's tossed off rather cavalierly as a rumor, unlike most of the rest of the dossier.  

Mueller's standard-of-proof for his Russian interference investigation—a legal investigation of whether charges could/should be brought against the then-current president—are a much higher standard than Steele's report.  It was "beyond a reasonable doubt," the standard used in a court of law.  Mueller ended up validating most parts of the dossier (though "investigating the dossier" was not any part of his remit), & said other parts could not be validated... but the Mueller Report actually invalidated NONE of the Steele dossier.

Me, I certainly hope the case is reopened into a new active investigation now that DOJ is independent again.

Toward the end George asked what was, in my opinion, a very stupid question:  Five years later, if the Russians still have the pee tape, why hasn't it been released?

Steele answered "They didn't need to."

The REAL answer, it's obvious to me, is that Trump is still useful to Putin.  He's still out there spreading Russian disinformation on election security, he's still out there fighting to bring down American democracy.  Why would Putin destroy such a valuable Russian asset?

I have read this CNN report, titled "The Steele Dossier: A Reckoning" twice now, and I can't see where any "reckoning" comes in. It sounds to me, from reading the report, that the Steele dossier has once again been largely verified, has had nothing disproven, and could still be extremely relevant if the Russian collusion investigation ever re-opens.

I can understand why the Biden Administration wants to focus on its major legislative mandates first: COVID relief, infrastructure bill, build back better act, John Lewis voting act, etc.

But as soon as they can, they need to hold the previous administration accountable.

Huh. Today, nearly seven years after the Steele Dossier was made public, Donald Trump is suing Christopher Steele.

1. I wonder if he even can. Aren't "public figures" immune from defamation suits?
   
2. Trump had better be careful what he wishes for. Discovery on this lawsuit could end up proving most of the dossier's claims

I seem to remember that it was Republicans who tried to make the Steele Dossier a big deal. He should sue them.

He IS suing them.

Two of his confidential Russian sources were "disappeared" after Trump made the classified documents public. This is pretty solid evidence that Trump is either a Russian asset, or too stupid to know he's being played like a fiddle.

Trump actually was dumb enough to sue Steele's company for producing the dossier. However, in the UK, things don't work the same way as in the US.

First, the judge dismissed the case, essentially because it was frivolous.

Second, she awarded costs to the defendant. Meaning Trump not only has to pay his own legal bills, but he also has to pay all the costs incurred by Steele's company during their defence. This almost never happens in the US, which means rich assholes can file lawsuits that are frivolous just to cost the other side a bunch of money for defence lawyers. But in the UK, the law doesn't play that game. So Trump is on the hook for somewhere between $500,000 to a million, the exact bill hasn't been calculated yet.

Trump is such a total loser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=equoZuDXY5A