The new report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is an absolutely damning indictment of the Steele dossier.
The dossier, compiled by the former British spy Christopher Steele during the 2016 campaign, was a collection of damaging and unfounded rumors about candidate Donald Trump. It was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign and overseen by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS. It was never verified, and some of it was laughably far-fetched from the very beginning.
Still, the dossier’s tales were taken seriously by officials in the highest ranks of the FBI — then-director James Comey and top deputy Andrew McCabe. In January 2017, Comey briefed President-elect Trump on the dossier’s most sensational allegations. The briefing provided a hook for some news organizations to tell the public of the dossier’s existence, and then, days later, publish the entire document.
The reporting did terrible damage to a new president as he took office. And now, the Horowitz report definitively shows that it was all garbage.
The report makes clear the dossier never had even a shred of credibility. Steele had no firsthand knowledge of anything in the document. He got all his information secondhand or thirdhand from sources who themselves heard things secondhand or thirdhand.
When the FBI managed to track down one of Steele’s main sources, the source was amazed that Steele took the information so seriously. It was “word of mouth and hearsay,” the source said, “conversation … with friends over beers.” The source said he takes what his own sources tell him “with a grain of salt,” and that it was, in the end, “just talk.”
Nevertheless, Steele, along with his Democratic sponsors and the highest levels of U.S. law enforcement, used those conversations with friends over beers to throw American politics into chaos and do irreparable harm to a newly elected president.
Look at three of the dossier’s most incendiary charges:
1) The “well-developed conspiracy” between Trump and Russia. The dossier claimed that Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort used low-level foreign policy adviser Carter Page as an intermediary to the Russians in a plot to weaken Clinton. But when the FBI interviewed Steele’s “sub-source” — that is, a person in Russia who gathered gossip from others and passed it on to Steele — agents heard an account that was “not consistent with and, in fact, contradicted the allegations of a ‘well-developed conspiracy.'” In a secretly recorded conversation with an informant, Page said he “literally never met” or “said one word to” Manafort and complained that Manafort never responded to Page’s emails. And then, according to the report, Steele himself told the FBI that his source was a “boaster” who “may engage in some embellishment.” Nevertheless, Steele passed on the “well-developed conspiracy” allegation — the foundation of the entire Trump-Russia collusion fabrication — and the FBI, for a while, believed it.
2) The Carter Page bribe. The dossier reported that during a July 2016 trip to Moscow, Page met with Igor Sechin, head of the Russian energy giant Rosneft and a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sechin, the dossier said, offered Page a huge bribe, in the form of a multibillion-dollar brokerage interest, to persuade Trump, should he become president, to end U.S. sanctions. The FBI talked to Steele’s subsource, who said he got information from another source via text message, and the texts never said anything about a brokerage offer to Page. “We reviewed the texts,” the inspector general report says, “and did not find any discussion of a bribe, whether as an interest in Rosneft itself or a ‘brokerage.'” Somewhere along the line, the Page “bribe” was created out of whole cloth. Beyond being false, it was, of course, enormously harmful to Page’s reputation.
3) The pee tape. The most sensational and salacious part of the dossier was the allegation that businessman Trump watched prostitutes perform a kinky sex act in a Moscow hotel room in 2013 while Russian spy cameras recorded the whole thing. It didn’t happen. The report says the subsource involved in that story told the FBI he warned Steele the story was “rumor and speculation,” which the subsource had not been able to substantiate. It had not been “confirmed” by a Western staff member at the hotel, as Steele claimed. And then this: The subsource told the FBI “that some of the information, such as allegations about Trump’s sexual activities, were statements he heard made in ‘jest.'” It was all a joke.
Nevertheless, the nation’s top intelligence chiefs were so excited by the sex story that they decided Comey should give that briefing to Trump in January 2017.
Gee, I guess that’s why the Democrats believe this is the level of crap that is sufficient to impeach a President.
We’ve been aware for some time that the dossier was composed of garbage and that the FBI never bothered to try to confirm any of it. An attempt would only make it useless and they WANTED to use it.
These are not people who were carefully considering the harm a misguided investigation of a Presidential campaign and then a President might cause that campaign and the nation. These are people who WANTED to pursue the investigation at all costs. Of course, it was assumed it would destroy the targeted campaign and render all investigation of it unlikely.
These are NOT people without a bias.
The article is an opinion piece, written by the author of The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.
It wasn’t released until after the election. No one went public with the fact that Trump and associates were under investigation until after the election, to avoid any appearance that the investigation had been undertaken for political reasons. Yet that’s the accusation. Trump, on the other hand, has attempted to create an investigation of his likely 2020 opponent specifically for that purpose. This is the difference between ethical and unethical behavior; between taking care not to abuse your power of office, and wantonly doing so with enthusiasm.
Horse manure. The report shows no such thing. Which is why Bryon York doesn’t quote the passages of the report that support this bullshit statement.
No, it doesn’t make that clear at all. Nor did Steele ever claim his dossier to be anything more than an organized collection of third-party reports. It’s the sort of preliminary information that is gathered in the earliest stages of an investigation—the equivalent of police canvassing people who might know something, asking them questions and writing down their answers. None of it was presented as evidence. People like York claim that it was used in such a fashion to create a straw man to attack, but they’re ranting about the wrongness of something that didn’t actually happen. There was sufficient cause to issue warrants, open surveillance, and conduct an investigation with the Steele document completely out of the picture. Horowitz said so in his report, and said so under oath while testifying at the impeachment hearing.
@Greg: You are spreading misinformation Steel was leaking September 23, 2016 you can quit with the bullshit.
Steele has admitted in British court filings that he met with Yahoo News—and several other outlets—in September 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS. (september is 3 months before the election)
This was clearly an abuse of power within the FBI, there never was enough verified facts or evidence to present to the FISA court to get a warrant against a CIA asset.
Horowitz had no defense for the actions of the FBI. Repeated he stood by his damning findings to the Democrats.
Major reforms will be done because of the abuse. 51 violations of the Woods procedure that Mueller initiated because of prior abuses.
The public was for the most part unaware of the dossier’s existence, and totally unaware of its content, until January 10, 2017, when it was published by BuzzFeed. The documented timeline of all that is very easy to find online. A number of journalists, newspapers, and political figures had more information or had actually seen a preliminary copy earlier, but nobody went public with the information. The first public acknowledgement that it existed was from CNN, shortly before BuzzFeed put it online.
@Greg: Thats not what you said was it?
There were reports of Trump or Trumps campaign being assisted by Russia in the news in Sept then in October that the FBI was investigating.
Nov 3 it was on Fox news dont try to say it wasnt widely known.
I dont expect you will correct your horse poopy.
@Greg: What the FBI (on orders from Obama and Hillary) was doing was investigating Trump and his campaign to find anything Hilary could use to destroy Trump’s campaign. There were leaks as far back as July, 2016, but since there was nothing that could be verified and Hillary was going to win anyway, no one went out on a limb (as they do now) and went prime time with it.
But, Trump won, so then they dumped everything they had and commenced trying to destroy Trump. Now, this isn’t just CNN; this is the IC and FBI, lying and suppressing evidence to maintain and ramp up an investigation of a sitting President.
All illegal, all the time. And even with that, what have they found on Trump? NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING.
How about the part where they found out Steele just collected urban legends and created his dossier, actually spoke with the source who laughed in their seditious faces for believing any of that shit? Did you like that?
I guess I should admit I’ve been wrong; I’ve said the FBI never bothered verifying the dossier information. No, they DID. And they found it was fetid garbage. I WAS wrong, but this was infinitely worse. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, maintaining plausible deniability so they could, with a straight face claim to the best of their knowledge, this was factual. No, they KNEW it was garbage and they LIED.
Oh. Show me the part where they claim any part of the dossier was valid.
And here you are, STILL defending it. Sheesh, Greg. Santa Claus is watching; don’t you even TRY to look like you’re being good?
It was not widely known. That’s a fact. You can verify this because many dated original articles relating to the developing story remain readily available, both online and in print. The Steele dossier DID NOT impact the 2016 election, because it was not public knowledge until January 10, 2017. The Steele dossier DID NOT trigger the Russia investigation, as Trump and many republicans are now asserting. Mueller’s team DID NOT take the Steele dossier to be factual information during the course of their investigation, nor was it cited as evidence in that investigation, or any subsequent investigations. All of this can be verified by anyone who takes the time to check.
A lengthy, factual discussion and analysis of the history of the Steele dossier can be found on Wikipedia, complete with footnoted sources, if anyone cares to look. The article doesn’t appear to have been vandalized by partisan hooligans recently, most likely because of editing restrictions that brought that under better control.
@Deplorable Me, #6:
It’s not there, because Horowitz’s report does not claim that to be the case either.
His conclusions are not based on a partisan position. He was critical about those aspects of the FISA process that were faulty, and pulled no punches about actions taken by FBI personnel that he concluded to be improper. At the same time, he concluded that there was, in fact, adequate justification for opening the investigation, and for issuing and extending FISA warrants.
Christopher Steele’s report WAS NOT what triggered or provided justification for investigation.
@Greg: Ok the dossier was not made public until after the election but it was widely known Trump or members of his campaign were under investigation and it had to do with Russia.
We now know this crap was pushed into the media by the top tier of the FBI and CIA aka reliable sources taking bribes from the media for exclusive leaks. No it didnt work. That doesnt change the fact that the dossier was put into a FISA application and the top tier of the FBI testified it was central to the evidence and it had not been verified to be true.
Steele got reeling drunk with a bunch of russian buddys and took notes.
Are you saying the FBI never claimed the Dossier was valid?
@kitt:
Comrade Greggie says:
I see he has been reading the LawFare blog again where excuses are made for the total corruption of the FBI. The article by Benjamin Wittes (a LawFare attorney connected to James Comey) is a real shell game. “Look here, not over there. Think this, not that.”
Wittes wrote before the November 2016 election:
.our democracy needs a health insurance policy. Indeed, it’s not enough to imagine how the Coalition of All Democratic Forces, which I posited last Monday, might respond to a Clinton victory, a subject which I discussed discussed on Tuesday.
We need to imagine as well how such a coalition should respond to the unthinkable: What if Trump wins?
…The Coalition of All Democratic Forces should certainly see what kind of use it might make of the legislature, but realistically, we should probably expect that the coalition’s job in Congress will be to prevent Trump from passing anti-democratic legislation. That is, the task in Congress will be a negative one of denying Trump the use of the Article I powers, not the positive one of the coalition’s using them itself. That leaves the tool that will certainly be available: the courts….
If I wake up on November 9 to find that Trump has been elected president, I plan to spend the next two months building such a network….The goal will not be to challenge everything a Trump administration does, some of which will be lawful, after all, and some of which may be debatably lawful among reasonable people.”
The FBI, once they had talked to the “sub-source”, it should have ended there because knew the Steele dossier was a load of crap yet they continued to seek FISA warrants against Carter Page.
In standard operating procedure, Comrade Greggie Goebbels is parroting the far left wing of the DNC. He has to. That is the only purpose in life he serves. Best to just leave him to his own delusions.
@Greg:
Oh. You just skip over the parts you don’t like, I guess. The report explains that the FBI found the SOURCE for Steele’s tale and THAT guy laughed that they ever believed ANY of it. Basically, he said is came from the same sources as the NYT, WaPo, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC all get their “bombshells”; somebody just got drunk and made it up.
No, fear of the drunken criminal Hillary blowing the election triggered it. Then, they set up Page and Papodapolis to be “Russian agents” to give them the excuse.
It’s all in the report, Greggie. Just as we have said for three years, it was an attempted coup based solely on lies and there was never even enough SUSPICION to warrant an investigation.
Lies, Greg. Lies. You base your positions on nothing but lies and rely on liars to form your opinions.
@kitt:
Hell, GREG claimed it was valid; absolutely factual and grounds for impeachment. How’d THAT work out?
@Deplorable Me: The verified the dossier they did! They went to Steeles sources and they were very open and honest.
They said we got totally shitfaced and began to joke about Trump and bragging how stong our Russian beds were they could hold 6 jumping prostitutes jumping. Most American beds could not do this, the would surely break with only 4. It is unfortunate our Prostitutes have the weakest bladders.
Well we better edit the drunk part out.
@kitt, #9:
I can think of NO instance where the FBI ever stated that they accepted the Steele’s report as representing established fact, or where they used it as evidence for ANY of their conclusions. If anyone has a link to something actually showing that they did, I would like to see it.
The document was a collection of third-party reports, methodically gathered in the same way a police investigator would canvas for preliminary leads and possibly relevant information.
@Greg: What? huh?
Was the dossier or any part of it presented to the Fisa Court as part of the gathered evidence to obtain a warrant?
A review of the Woods Procedure:
They are procedures put in place to ensure no unverified information makes its way on to a FISA application. “Presentation of … unverified material to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court to justify a wiretap would appear to violate crucial procedural rules, called “Woods Procedures,” designed to protect U.S. citizens.”
Known as “Woods procedures” after Michael J. Woods, the FBI Special Agent attorney who developed this layer of approval, DOJ verifies the accuracy of every fact stated in the application.
You are really sad Brother I pity you and those that you get your talking point from this 1 case showed 51 violations of the Woods procedure.
@Deplorable Me, #11:
The Steele report has nothing whatsoever to do with the impeachment.
There are two Articles of Impeachment, both based upon supporting evidence and testimony. The Steele dossier has little or nothing to do with either.
The first deals with abuse of power and the impropriety and illegality of using one’s power of office to leverage something that would be enormously useful in the upcoming presidential election from a foreign government. What was going on is totally obvious to any objective person.
Here’s a newsflash for you: The argument that Trump is King of the Corruption Fighters, and that the matter of primary importance in that righteous battle just happens to involve his most likely 2020 election opponent, is utter nonsense.
The second deals with obstruction of Congress. This is incontestable. There’s no denying that Trump used his authority to deny Congress access to both evidence and testimony. It’s a fact that he did so. Thirteen people with direct personal knowledge of important aspects of the Ukraine situation have illegally defied congressional subpoenas to provide testimony and evidence.
Republicans are doing everything in their power to divert attention from the simple, straightforward facts involved. It’s all they can do, because the alternative would be an open admission that they’re OK with what Trump did, and OK with the fact that he’s giving Congress the finger for calling him on it.
He’s attempting to break our constitutional system of checks and balances to protect his own ass, and they’re going to assist him in the doing of it.
@kitt, #14:
Inspector General Horowitz investigated that, and concluded that mention of the report WAS NOT a critical part of the justification for issuing FISA warrants. There was sufficient justification for warrants and the investigation without it.
This conclusion is what Barr and Durham can’t abide, because kicks the props out from under one of Trump’s repeated claims. They only want to accept those of his conclusions that Trump and his enablers find useful.
This has nothing to do with the facts supporting the two Articles of Impeachment. Their narrow focus is intended to cut through the smoke screen of disinformation, distractions, diversions, and Trumpian gaslighting. There are straightforward assertions of impeachable acts, and testimony, arguments, and observable facts strongly supporting those Articles.
That’s the clear and simple message House democrats are communicating. Heading into the election, republicans will ignore it in the Senate with the whole world watching. Democrats are betting on the belief that a majority of voters will not only understand the betrayal that they’re seeing, but care.
@Greg:
Fixed it for you
Of course, when Obama refused what you deem as having “illegally defied congressional subpoenas to provide testimony and evidence” you were mute.
But then, you seem to have no problem with LawFare (the real Deep State) doing things to take down a duly elected President by bastardizing our legal system. The hatred you hold for President Trump will eventually eat you up, Comrade Greggie.
@Greg: Not the point brother
They abused their power by fluffing the request and altering evidence omitting exculpatory evidence they lied, committed perjury before a court set up in such a way the defendant has no recourse.
They did use it if it wasnt needed why chuck it in and hide so much of it origins from that Special court?
This must just make both your brain cells just quiver trying to justify and or dismiss the very thing Glen Simpsons firm was paid millions of dollars for.
@retire05, #17:
Fix yourself. What I said still seems to be there, unaltered.
A final message from the late Paul Volcker:
@kitt, #18:
There’s overlap between some of the claims in the Steele report and some of the observed suspicious behaviors of people in the Trump organization which served as adequate justification for an investigation. A fair number of concerns raised in the Steele report have since turned out to have some basis in fact.
It’s the job of those who protect our nation from internal and external threats to investigate such possibilities. Failure to do so would have been dereliction of duty. Failure to call Trump on the Ukraine bullshit and documented obstruction of Congress would also be dereliction of duty. Republicans have actively and noisily resisted an investigation of very serious matters every step of the way—but they’re not really republicans any more, are they? Most of those who put principles before blind support of Donald Trump have been driven out, have voluntarily left, or are not seeking reelection.
@Greg:
Can you tell us which concerns and which of those have basis in fact?
And it had to be valid
in order to be relevent.
Volker raises very valid points, the Government itself is the cause, as we are shown they do not deserve our trust or control over vast swaths of our lives and trample our god given, not government granted, rights.
Edit:
It’s the job of those who protect our nation from internal and external threats to investigate such possibilities. Failure to do so would have been dereliction of duty.
Except when 1.8 billion US tax dollar vanish into the hands of an Oligarch for millions of those dollars to end up in politicians kids pockets.
Recent news reports put the figure up to 5 billion.
But the dems clutch pearls over a couple of hundred million that were simply delayed.
@kitt, #22:
I won’t waste our time on that when there’s a readily available reference that addresses the Steele report’s allegations point by point, providing footnote links to material supporting each conclusion. Anyone who wants to know what it says and why only has to look:
Veracity and verification of specific allegations – “The following content describes how some allegations have been verified, while others remain unverified, with sometimes conflicting reports for or against their veracity…”
@Greg:
Uh, no… not NOW. But it was one of the MANY iterations of “let’s impeach the motherf**ker”. It’s not like you can simply ignore all your past failures.
The FBI used Steele and the dossier to justify their FISA warrants. To do that, they stated they believed the information AND had verified it. All they had verified was that is was shit. But, they used it anyway. Repeatedly. That’s what you call “corruption”.
And THAT hinges upon whether or not there was anything for Zelensky to investigate. Well, there was; Burisma. Burisma was thoroughly corrupt and Hunter’s sole purpose was to keep the US off their back. It worked to perfection, and THAT is documented, not just someone’s hate-driven opinion. If Schiff, Nadler and the corrupt Democrats would allow witnesses and testimony about Joe, Hunter and Burisma, the REASON for Trump wanting investigations would be clear and there would be NO impeachment.
FOR, if this were reasonably looked at, there would have been NO requests for further testimony, no demands for people with executive privilege to come to their stupid little circus and say, “executive privilege”.
What “suspicious behavior”? Talking to assets the FBI sent to entrap them? Being accused of talking to Russians even though they were actually CIA assets INTENDED to talk to Russians (which the FBI hid from FISA)? Seems you would want to avoid going down that path, Greg; that is perhaps the most damaging, embarrassing, disgraceful part of the entire “investigation”.
Oh… like what? That someone at some time actually wet the bed in Russia? (probably Obama)
Why not? You waste our time repeating your Soros-supplied LIES.
True. Yet the Democrats and those who spearheaded this unfounded and illegal “investigation” have brought harm and danger to the nation, not to mention wrecking the lives of innocent people.
The Steele Report has nothing whatsoever to do with the two Articles of Impeachment.
@Greg: Holy mother of eye rolls, Wikipedia, which cites the main stream media as evidence sources.
Brennen who is has perjured himself a source.
That in the first few paragraphs.
This thread is about the Dossier and it was verified by the FBI to be garbage, that fact was hidden from the FISA Court and its contents were used as evidence to obtain a warrant to spy on a Naval school graduate that the CIA used to prosecute a real live bad guy spy.
Brother we cant get the pilfered US aid money back, we cant go back in time and force the FBI to follow the rule of law.
If no one investigates these things nothing gets exposed nothing gets corrected.
Forgetting party and ideology arguments for 1 second can you agree there are a great many things need to be reformed, we have to with clear heads and the highest law in our Republic work together, or just burn it to the ground and all become slaves to really rich people that will take control.
@Greg:
No. Not now. But, it did. It was going to be the basis for impeachment for collusion and conspiracy. That just turned out to be a gigantic lie is all.