These revelations have triggered a reckoning around the Steele dossier, particularly in the wake of two recent indictments secured by John Durham, the special counsel appointed during the Trump administration to investigate the FBI’s Russia probe. They also raise serious questions about the political underpinnings of some key explosive claims about Trump by shedding new light on the involvement of some well-connected Democrats in the dossier, and separate efforts to prod the FBI to investigate ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
SECOND STEELE DOSSIER SERIES
The central allegations, that Trump conspired with the Kremlin to win the 2016 election and that Russia had compromising information on him, were given a veneer of credibility because they originated from a retired British spy, Christopher Steele, who had a solid reputation.īut five years later, the credibility of the dossier has significantly diminished.Ī series of investigations and lawsuits have discredited many of its central allegations and exposed the unreliability of Steele’s sources. Steele's purported lack of credibility as a source, the memo said, should have been a red flag for the FBI before it used parts of the Steele dossier to support the FISA application on Page in 2016.When it came to light in January 2017, just days before Donald Trump took office, the so-called Steele dossier landed like a bombshell and sent shockwaves around the world with its salacious allegations about Trump and his supposed ties to Russia. The Nunes memo took aim at Steele multiple times, painting him as a politically biased source providing unreliable information about Trump's ties to Russia. Steele has taken center stage in recent weeks as Republicans raise questions about his role in the Russia probe and ramp up accusations of corruption in the nation's top law-enforcement agencies. You take the information you get, don't accept it at face value, do your research, and find out whether it coheres." Of course, that's only the beginning of the process. "Cops and lawyers take tips where they get them.
"I don't think it's odd at all that the FBI is looking at this second dossier," said Robert Deitz, a former top lawyer at the CIA and National Security Agency. On the other hand, if I'm seeing stuff I can check out and verify, I'm going to listen to it." If the information in question is "unverifiable nonsense," he added, "then I have a hard time establishing the overall document as being credible. "If someone like Steele, who has that kind of credibility, gives the FBI that information, they should give it attention," said Rick Smith, a former FBI counterintelligence agent who spent 25 years at the bureau. Nunes's next memo, meanwhile, will focus on alleged abuses at the Department of State and a second Trump-Russia dossier compiled by Cody Shearer, a controversial political activist with close ties to the Clinton family, according to a Republican familiar with the details. Much of the Republican document also questioned the FBI's decision to use the Steele dossier - an explosive collection of memos by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele alleging collusion between Trump and Russia - as a " roadmap" in the Russia investigation. Nunes's much-hyped first memo, which was declassified last week, purports to show the FBI and DOJ abusing their surveillance authority by omitting "material and relevant" facts when submitting an application for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against Carter Page, a former adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign. It often indicates a user profile.Īs Democrats and Republicans continue brawling over the Russia probe, House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes is gearing up to release a second memo as part of his investigation into perceived bias within the FBI and Department of Justice. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
0 kommentar(er)
