Trump Russia Dossier Gains Credibility as Senators Prepare to Meet with its Author

Earlier this year, senator McCain obtained a copy of the Trump / Russia dossier from its author, Christopher Steele who is a former MI6 agent and highly regarded by his peers. He was hired by Republicans during the primaries to find information about Trump and found quite a lot of it regarding his relationships with Russia. At this point in time, the dossier is not verified, and in fact, CNN refuses to report on the details of it until it is verified.

The contents of the dossier include the fact that the Kremlin has been grooming Trump to run for President for the last 5 years in order to get him into power and weaken the United States and its alliances, that the Russians have compromising personal and financial information about Donald Trump, and that he and his campaign have been in constant contact with the Russians.

Seeing as both Republicans and Democrats in the senate dislike Trump, it is likely that it will be investigated further. Is Trump trying to deflect the investigation by making a baseless accusation that Obama personally ordered Trump Tower to be wiretapped? I've come to the conclusion that the solution to this is to investigate everything - Trump's Russia ties and Obama's alleged "wiretapping" of Trump Tower - because the senate will probably learn more about the FBI's request (not Obama's) for a FISA warrant on four of Trump's counterparts, which would require probable cause that they were working with a foreign government.

It claims there is an “extensive conspiracy” between Trump’s campaign team and the Kremlin. The plot was sanctioned at the “highest level” and involved Russian diplomatic staff based in the US. It adds that Russia was behind the hack of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails and released them to WikiLeaks for reasons of “plausible deniability”. The dossier says information went in both directions: Trump’s team used moles within the DNC as well as hackers in the US and Russia. The report claims that the Trump campaign fed back to Moscow details on Russian oligarchs living in the US and their families.

I am going to make this disclaimer: I still find the dossier to be a bit sketchy. However, more and more of it is starting to be verified. The latest report from CNN (which does not go into the details of the dossier) does state that the meetings listed in the dossier and the dates of the meetings are accurate.

But the intercepts do confirm that some of the conversations described in the dossier took place between the same individuals on the same days and from the same locations as detailed in the dossier, according to the officials. CNN has not confirmed whether any content relates to then-candidate Trump. The corroboration, based on intercepted communications, has given US intelligence and law enforcement "greater confidence" in the credibility of some aspects of the dossier as they continue to actively investigate its contents, these sources say.

In addition:

According to Concord Monitor reporter Robert Gillette, the dossier has had at least one of its main factual assertions verified. On January 6, 2017, the Director of National Intelligence released a report assessing "with high confidence" that Russia’s combined cyber and propaganda operation was directed personally by Vladimir Putin, with the aim of harming Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and helping Trump.[46] Gillette wrote: "Steele’s dossier, paraphrasing multiple sources, reported precisely the same conclusion, in greater detail, six months earlier, in a memo dated June 20."[47]

From another source.

What’s more, subsequent investigations have produced evidence that comports with one of Steele’s central claims that there were repeated exchanges of information between Trump campaign surrogates and “intermediaries for the Russian government.”

As the New York Times reported Wednesday night: American allies, including the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials — and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin — and associates of President-elect Trump, according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence.

Although I don't have access to the complete dossier, I do have access to the official summary and it is linked below (edit: the "summary" appears to be the entire document, you can read it on the link below). The basics are that the Russians have been feeding Trump intel on his political opponents and that they worked with Trump to hack the DNC and release e-mails harmful to Clinton through Wikileaks. Trump was aware of this, and in fact, it was part of a deal - he would look the other way on the Russia / Ukraine issue in return.

Christopher Steele had been hired by Republicans opposed to Trump but they stopped paying him once Trump was the nominee. However, then he started to work for Democrats, and finally, for the FBI. However, when the FBI offered to pay him, he refused because he had become frustrated with them and their obsession with Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal and so he continued to gather intelligence for free and independently. The whole time, he was sending memos. Senator McCain gathered all of the memos to form the dossier and personally delivered it to the FBI earlier this year.

The FBI is undergoing an extensive investigation into Trump, his associates, and their Russian ties - however, they are not giving the information they know to congress.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday accused FBI Director James Comey of withholding crucial information about its probe into Russian interference in the election and raised the prospect of subpoenaing the agency. “I would say at this point we know less than a fraction of what the FBI knows,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Ca.) told reporters after a briefing with Comey.

For this reason, the House Intelligence Committee is seeking out Christopher Steele, who has gone into hiding, and are thinking of meeting with him on neutral ground (as he may not want to come to the U.S.).

New York Magazine

The Guardian

Wikipedia

Vox

Link to the dossier summary (maybe the whole thing)

All "sources" are garbage I suspect.

a reply to: xuenchen

At least there are sources, unlike Trump's baseless claim that Obama ordered wiretapping on Trump Tower.

I love how you take as gospel all the accusations against Trump for his Russian connections based on "sources" and an unverified unseen document yet you call Trumps accusation against Obama as "baseless".

The word Hypocrite comes to mind here

a reply to: darkbake

How does the Dossier now gain credibility, as your thread title states?

a reply to: darkbake

Like you said it all needs to be verified, but other than that you made a very good thread and it is well sourced unlike some detractors do in theirs.

a reply to: carewemust

Read the numerous quotes that corroborate what was in the document with facts known by the intelligence community. If it helps, they are all in boxes for easy reading.

originally posted by: IkNOwSTuff
I love how you take as gospel all the accusations against Trump for his Russian connections based on "sources" and an unverified unseen document yet you call Trumps accusation against Obama as "baseless".

The word Hypocrite comes to mind here

I'm actually enjoying doing this because it gives me a chance to do the same thing the Trump supporters and other Republicans around here do every day. Remember all the uproar over Obama's alleged wiretapping of Trump tower? Or Obama's "fake" birth certificate?

However, when the FBI offered to pay him, he refused because he had become frustrated with them and their obsession with Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal and so he continued to gather intelligence for free and independently.

Most of what you have is fairly on target. But the above is totally wrong.
Mid and low level people were trying set up some type of payment system, but when this became known by the top, the entire thing was axed. Steele as well as his findings still have a major credibility problem.
And public statements ( such as above by Steele ) are not helping at all.

I am a strong supporter of full disclosure, no matter where it leads.
The sooner all this goes public , the better.

Buck

originally posted by: xuenchen
All "sources" are garbage I suspect.

But trump claiming obama wire tapped him with no sources is gospel...

a reply to: flatbush71

I say there should be a full investigation, including one into whether or not Obama ordered wiretapping of Trump. I think it is pretty clear that he didn't, but maybe another intelligence agency did and we can find out what evidence they had that allowed them to get a FISA warrant.

Thanks for the info about why Steele stopped working with the FBI. I'll look more into that.

a reply to: darkbake

The Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing to meet with a man who's in hiding..if they can find him.

a reply to: xuenchen

All "sources" are garbage I suspect.

Yes and unverified "facts" quite believable and very very convincing ,wouldn't you agree ?

a reply to: carewemust

Good point. We'll see if they can set up the meeting or not.

Steele is in virtual hiding in Europe, so it's unclear whether he would be willing to come to Washington. The Independent newspaper of London reported that the Senate Intelligence Committee was considering interviewing him somewhere else.

NBC

a reply to: darkbake

Id like to read your sources but I don't know which sources the quotes you posted are from. Just putting a laundry list of sources at the bottom as opposed to placing each source after the quoted section makes it difficult to discern where your quotes are coming from.

a reply to: Grambler

Trumps can of worms might be a lot bigger then most are considering ...Think The Anglo-American Establishment and the Five Eyes Network ...Steel would be the secret British guy used in that fake dossier .

add to this the "breadcrumbs" obama reportedly has left for investigators and our allies and this thing is not going away.

we need this investigated by an independent group that was not hired by trump. we already saw how he protected conway from her blatant violation of ethics

true or not, we as americans need this cloud cleared up so our government can function !!!!

a reply to: darkbake

So now we have to believe this story because the person is what? in hiding?

Hard to make a case without the main witness.

originally posted by: xuenchen
All "sources" are garbage I suspect.

hey, I'm dutch and english show some respect

Dutch source

british source

What we need is an actual investigation done by an entity that will not collude.

I was shocked to find out the fbi didn't investigate the Russian connection....im not buying any of this.