most recent revelations in Russia investigation provide additional credibility to the Steele dossier

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@john_sipher (former CIA Senior Intelligence Service) writes that most recent revelations in Russia investigation provide additional credibility to the Steele dossier.

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...............was onto something?

More Recent Revelations

So, what new information do we have to evaluate the dossier?

On the side of adding credibility to the Orbis reporting, the Papadopoulos revelations, the Harding book, and Fusion GPS op-ed provide additional context that bolsters Mr. Steele’s reporting. We learned that Mr. Steele’s sources were not paid, and that he felt so strongly about the information he uncovered, that he chose to go directly to the FBI.


As I mentioned in my previous piece, I take seriously the fact that Mr. Steele chose to share his work with the British and U.S. intelligence community. The Harding book and the Simpson and Fritsch op-ed confirmed that it was Steele who approached the FBI in an effort to report his concerns and validate his reporting. From my experience, there are a lot of groups providing some form of business intelligence. However, very little of their information would stand up to serious scrutiny by professional intelligence services with access to legal collection tools and worldwide scope. Most would probably only stand behind their material to a limited extent. However, the fact that Mr. Steele was more than willing to expose his reporting to scrutiny and accountability by the best in the world, suggests that he was confident in his sources. If there was nothing there, the FBI would gladly send him packing.

Jared Kushner’s failure to turn over to Senate investigators an e-mail exchange – with the subject line “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite” – also hinted at possible efforts by the campaign to collude with Russia. Although Kushner initially told campaign staff to turn down a request from Putin crony and alleged criminal Alexander Torshin to meet with then-candidate Trump, Donald Trump Jr. ultimately met the Russian at a May 2016 NRA dinner event. Again, we only learned this only after Kushner was confronted with previously withheld material.

What’s more, Harding’s book reports that Mr. Steele utilized several of the same sources that he had relied on for previous work in support of clients in Ukraine and the FBI’s FIFA investigation, which led to high-profile indictments. The fact that these sources had demonstrated reliability in significant prior cases is important. Orbis’ record of success with clients depended on accurate reporting, and a proven track record is part of the process involved in validating and vetting sources. Of course, we still don’t have enough information on Steele’s sources to have confidence in their reliability and their access to information on the Kremlin, but their having reported accurately over time provides us greater confidence than we had previously. Steele’s faith in his sources is probably why he himself attributes a high level of confidence to the dossier.

While the new information is only a sliver of what we would need to reach any conclusive assessments, it nonetheless helps to refute those partisan critics who claim that Mr. Steele’s work is essentially contrived. If he invented information from his sources, or his sources invented information, it follows that he also likely did so in his previous work with the FBI on the 2015 FIFA investigation. Since that relationship led to the successful indictment of 14 leaders of the world soccer governing body for money laundering and collusion, it is hard to conclude that he is a swindler.

The Steele information first proved useful as a means to understand the now well-known June 2016 meeting between senior members of the Trump campaign and the Russian team including the lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. It provided some context to Russian intelligence efforts to seek a quid-pro-quo with the Trump team. While we do not have many more details about the meeting since my earlier piece, we have more input from key players who ascribe a level of concern to the meeting. The offer of stolen or comprising material on Ms. Clinton that was downplayed by the Trump team, was nonetheless seen in a wholly different light by some associates. Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon has called the meeting “treasonous,” and, in terms of demonstrated loyalties, both Mr. Steele and the Australian government approached the FBI when they became aware of Russia’s possession of derogatory information. Again, it is not proof, but it bolsters the possibility that Mr. Steele got wind of a possible “conspiracy of cooperation” before it was public knowledge.

The revelation that Donald Trump Jr. was engaged in communication with Wikileaks also supports this thesis. As I noted in a separate article, Trump Jr.’s communication with Wikileaks can be read as yet another means to support a conspiratorial relationship with Russia. If the Russians had stolen material and the Trump team was interested in weaponizing it, Wikileaks was a ready vehicle to provide both sides with plausible deniability. At the very least, it is troubling that Donald Trump Jr. was willing to engage with WikiLeaks even though it had known ties to Russia, and the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security had only recently implicated the organization in aiding the dissemination of stolen material from U.S. persons and institutions in the election...............................................

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Feinstein kicked the door open today,

now,let's see if our so called Media is willing to exploit this treasure trove.

Said this before,our Agencies are taking the Trump Crime Family down. Never chide or deride the Spooks.