{"id":1385715,"date":"2022-03-17T08:23:12","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T12:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1385715"},"modified":"2022-03-17T08:24:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T12:24:00","slug":"ex-uk-spy-christopher-steele-insists-trump-dossier-is-legitimate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ex-uk-spy-christopher-steele-insists-trump-dossier-is-legitimate\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-UK Spy Christopher Steele Insists Trump Dossier is Legitimate"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fex-uk-spy-christopher-steele-insists-trump-dossier-is-legitimate%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1385715&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<div class=\"RichTextArticleBody\">\n<div class=\"RichTextArticleBody-body\">\n<p><span class=\"ArticlePage-articleBody-firstLetter\">B<\/span>ritish ex-spy Christopher Steele emphasized his defense of his <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/the-many-russian-links-to-the-operatives-behind-the-steele-dossier\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">discredited<\/a> Democratic-funded dossier while contending he was surprised his salacious Trump-Russia collusion claims ended up being divisive. <\/p>\n<p>Steele <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fLVQfwwN_r8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">appeared<\/a> for a talk at the Oxford Union on Friday, following an <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/christopher-steele-reappears-as-russia-expert-but-avoids-dossier-questions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">appearance<\/a> as a Russia analyst on the BBC earlier this month, as special counsel John Durham continues his criminal investigation into the origins and conduct of the Trump-Russia investigation \u2014 including an indictment of Steele\u2019s main source. <\/p>\n<div class=\"Enhancement\">\n<div class=\"Enhancement-item\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWhat is being called the dossier was actually a series of single-source intelligence reports over a period of time, if you like, almost a running commentary on the election campaign and Russia\u2019s perspective on it \u2014 and it comes from the Russian perspective of the telescope, if you like,\u201d Steele claimed on Friday. \u201cThe sources were Russian, they were reporting on how Russia saw it, and of course, that may in some cases be rather different than how it was viewed in America at the other end of the telescope.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The alleged main source for Steele\u2019s <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/christopher-steele-stands-by-discredited-anti-trump-dossier-claims-about-michael-cohen-in-prague-and-pee-tape\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">discredited<\/a><\/u> anti-Trump dossier was <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/steeles-main-dossier-source-arrested-in-durham-investigation-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">arrested<\/a> in November. <\/p>\n<p>Igor Danchenko, a Russian-born lawyer living in the United States, was <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/doj-and-fbi-gave-cover-to-steele-dossier-source-accused-of-lying\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">charged<\/a> \u201cwith five counts of making false statements to the FBI\u201d that Durham said he made in 2017 about the sources used in providing information to Steele for his dossier. <\/p>\n<p>FBI notes of a January 2017 <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/declassified-documents-undercut-steele-dossier-and-russian-collusion-narrative\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview<\/a><\/u> with Danchenko showed he told the bureau he \u201cdid not know the origins\u201d of some of Steele&#8217;s claims and \u201cdid not recall\u201d other dossier information. He told the FBI that Steele mischaracterized at least one of his Russian source contacts and noted that much of what he gave to Steele was \u201cword of mouth and hearsay,&#8221; adding that the most salacious allegations may have been made in \u201cjest.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Durham discovered Danchenko was <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/steele-dossiers-main-source-was-investigated-by-fbi-as-threat-to-national-security\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">investigated<\/a><\/u> by the FBI as a possible \u201cthreat to national security.&#8221; The FBI&#8217;s &#8220;Crossfire Hurricane&#8221; team apparently became aware of this information by December 2016. <\/p>\n<p><b><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/foreign\/russian-oligarch-close-to-putin-says-we-need-peace-and-shares-video-critical-of-invasion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RUSSIAN OLIGARCH WHO STEELE WORKED FOR SAYS &#8220;WE NEED PEACE&#8221;<\/a><\/b> <\/p>\n<p>Steele repeatedly said last week there were \u201cthree\u201d elements to the dossier, but he then listed four. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne was there was a whole scale campaign to interfere in the U.S. election. [Secondly], that it was supported and funded by the Russian leadership, including Putin,\u201d Steele said. \u201cThirdly, that it was designed primarily to assist Donald Trump and to damage Hillary Clinton rather than just to sow chaos in the American electorate. And fourthly, that there were elements of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The dossier\u2019s biggest claim was that there was a \u201cwell-developed conspiracy of co-operation\u201d between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Robert Mueller\u2019s special counsel investigation \u201cdid not establish\u201d any such criminal collusion. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said Danchenko \u201ccontradicted the allegations\u201d of a well-developed conspiracy in Steele\u2019s dossier. <\/p>\n<p>Horowitz <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/doj-inspector-general-criticizes-fbis-entire-chain-of-command-in-carter-page-fisa-process\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">concluded<\/a><\/u> that Steele&#8217;s dossier played a &#8220;central and essential&#8221; role in the FBI&#8217;s effort to obtain wiretap orders against Trump campaign associate Carter Page, and the DOJ watchdog criticized the bureau for at least 17 \u201csignificant errors and omissions,\u201d including some related to the FBI\u2019s reliance on Steele\u2019s dossier. <\/p>\n<p>Steele said Friday the dossier \u201cwas initially produced for a law firm that was connected with the Clinton campaign\u201d and that \u201cit was subsequently shared with the FBI and our own security services.\u201d Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/politics\/a-left-wing-superlawyers-assault-on-democracy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hired<\/a> Fusion GPS, which hired Steele, and Steele began to push dossier claims to the FBI in the summer of 2016. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a divisive reaction. Something that we would have always considered in our careers in government to be bread and butter, consensus, national security territory \u2014 the interference of a hostile authoritarian state in your elections,\u201d Steele claimed of the reaction to the dossier when it was published in 2017. \u201cWe never had any clue that it would become such a partisan, such a divisive, such a nonconformity issue over the years. It\u2019s been extraordinary how it\u2019s dragged on and is still actually dragging on now five years later.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>A 2019 book by the Fusion co-founders said Steele called fired FBI Director James Comey\u2019s decision to reopen the Clinton email investigation in October 2016 \u201cunconscionable\u201d and \u201ctreasonous.\u201d Steele <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/michael-cohen-calls-steele-austin-powers-after-being-accused-of-treason\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">suggested<\/a> as recently as October that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen may have committed \u201ctreason\u201d when referencing a debunked dossier claim that Cohen had traveled to Prague in 2016 as part of a collusion scheme. <\/p>\n<p>Horowitz\u2019s report <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/chasing-the-shiny-object-fbi-relied-on-steele-dossier-despite-concerns-about-judgment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">criticized<\/a><\/u> Steele directly, <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/storage\/120919-examination.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">noting<\/a> that FBI meetings with Steele\u2019s sources \u201craised significant questions about the reliability of the Steele election reporting,\u201d and bureau officials said Steele \u201cmay have some judgment problems.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><b><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/b> <\/p>\n<p>The DOJ watchdog noted that during a September 2017 interview with the FBI, Steele described Trump as his \u201cmain opponent\u201d and an FBI analyst said this was \u201cclear bias.\u201d DOJ official Bruce Ohr told the bureau that Steele was &#8220;desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being the U.S. President.&#8221; Horowitz wrote, &#8220;The FBI was aware of the potential for political bias in the Steele election reporting from the outset of obtaining it.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>British ex-spy Christopher Steele emphasized his defense of his discredited Democratic-funded dossier while contending he was surprised his salacious Trump-Russia collusion claims ended up being divisive. Steele<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1385715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1385715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1385715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1385715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1385715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}