The Justice Department is reportedly preparing to go after the author of Trump-Russia dossier

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Politico


By NATASHA BERTRAND 04/17/2019 06:47 PM EDT Updated 04/17/2019 08:25 PM EDT

The frenzied anticipation around special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report has overshadowed another Justice Department report on the Russia probe that could land as soon as next month, and which will likely take direct aim at the former British spy behind an infamous “dossier” on President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.

For the past year, the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, has been examining the FBI’s efforts to surveil a one-time Trump campaign adviser based in part on information from Christopher Steele, a former British MI6 agent who had worked with the bureau as a confidential source since 2010.

Several people interviewed by the Inspector General’s office over the past year tell POLITICO that Horowitz’s team has been intensely focused on gauging Steele’s credibility as a source for the bureau. One former U.S. official left the interview with the impression that the Inspector General’s final report “is going to try and deeply undermine” Steele, who spent over two decades working Russia for MI6 before leaving to launch his own corporate intelligence firm.

Thursday’s planned release of the full Mueller report by the Justice Department could shed new light on Steele’s role, and the veracity of the controversial dossier he assembled in 2016, featuring explosive—and in some cases sexually lurid—charges of Kremlin influence over Trump and his associates.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/17/mueller-report-steele-justice-department-1280578

[madaboutharry]

1. This is how dictatorships operate.

[pangaia]

2. DEMS ! HELP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ZZenith]

19. Fuck that.

Like hell we are. You might curl up in a fetal position but the rest of us are going to fight and we are going to remove them. The entire world stands opposed to these bastards - they WILL taste defeat before this is all through.

[C_U_L8R]

3. What's proved to be untrue?

[lagomorph777]

29. All evidence so far only corroborates Steele.

History will not be kind to those who attempt to smear Steele.

[at140]

4. Enough investigations already!

In the meanwhile healthcare, immigration, national debt, record budget deficits, climate change, green energy etc just all talk and no action.

[onecaliberal]

8. The dem house has passed ALOT of legislation. You know where it's going? NOWHERE

Because the piece of shit in the senate will not even allow votes. The orange cancerous pustule will never sign any of it.

[BigmanPigman]

10. AARGH!

We have to win the Senate somehow!

[pangaia]

11. By then it will be too late...

NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[at140]

25. Yearning for the old days when O'Neill & Reagan

got together and passed much bi-partisan legislation.
Bill Clinton did the same thing, and we had another prosperous period.
This gridlock in DC is holding up legislation on so many critical issues.

[FiveGoodMen]

30. If we can't dislodge the Nazis, those things will never be fixed.

Literally, never.

[at140]

32. Whatever happened to bi-partisonship?

If Reagan & speaker O'Neill could do deals,
And Bill Clinton & speaker Newt could do deals,
Why it does not happen anymore? Country is deteriorating in the absence of good deals. The coming recession is going to wipe off the middle class, what's left of it.

[FiveGoodMen]

33. The GOP has transformed into Nazis

Shame beyond description for those who want to compromise with Nazis!

(Hey, Adolf, we'd settle for you only killing 3 million Jews, what do you think?)

[at140]

34. I hope GOP is not thinking genocide

the issues are not on the level of exterminating a class of people.

Affordable healthcare, green energy, immigration reform, stupid lower than inflation rate interest rates, horrible destruction of manufacturing jobs due to ugly trade deficits, rebuilding crumbling infra-structure etc etc do not rise to the level of murdering 6 million in gas ovens.

Sooner both sides sit down and compromise the better. A bitterly divided country is on the path of self-destruction.

[FiveGoodMen]

35. "the issues are not on the level of exterminating a class of people."

You know the minds of the GOP's members enough to assert that?

Cause from where I'm sittin' it looks like they want to kill a whole lot of Muslims, for a start.

[at140]

36. Can not be true, because Trump is bending backwards on his butt

to support the maximum devout Muslim countries such as, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE etc.
He keeps berating mostly Iran & Syria.

[FiveGoodMen]

37. And the immigration thing? Kids in cages and stolen away in secret to other cities in the night?

You're looking at someone pulling the wings off flies.

They will graduate to bigger and worse things like all sadists.

[at140]

38. Aha...now you switch from Muslims to immigrants on border!

You would make a good switch hitter for the Chicago Cubs.

[IndyOp]

7. Fuck

[PeeJ52]

9. That could have been what Pompeo was at justice for if they need to get cooperation from the UK...

to question Steele. Someone said the press conference may announce the investigation into the "oranges" of the Mueller investigation. I'm getting that feeling too. They are going on offense.

[watoos]

12. Steele is reputable,

he can take care of himself. Bring it traitors.

[TexasBushwhacker]

31. Yup, open that Pandora's box motherfucker n/t

[FakeNoose]

13. Chump is a bully, he's looking for revenge

[ancianita]

14. Remember: ALL Intel had spied on the Russians when Trump people showed up in their radar

and all that was the trigger to the Steele dossier. BEFORE the Steele dossier.

There's no impugning the origins of the Special Counsel's appointment or investigation. AT ALL.

This right here -- Barr's ordering of the inspector general of Michael Steele -- is the true witch hunt.

The DOJ had all the reason it needed from US Intel to start the Mueller investigation --

-- In 2014 Obama received the intel,
-- Obama kicked out 35 Russian "diplomats," confiscating their New York, Maryland real estate,
-- Obama's meeting with congressional leaders in charge of oversight
-- Mitch McConnell's threat to spin the problem as "fake" to media

[KPN]

28. THIS

[Corgigal]

15. Hey our multi-billion dollar intelligence agency..

We have a national security threat attacking an ally of the U.S., which put everyone at risk. We cannot allow this behavior, we need cooperation to keep us safe.

Hello?

[mr_lebowski]

16. Since there will be no charges, Rod R. will make sure it won't be released ...

You know, cause of the those Dept. Policies he talked about last month, where if 'Charges Aren't Being Filed, the Bureau has no Business Publicly Impugning the Subject(s) of it's Investigations!!1!!'.

We can TOTALLY count on that Dept. Policy being a totally real thing, and he'll make sure it's adhered to rigorously in all cases.

[SKKY]

17. They need to take the "L" and walk away from this...

...I don't think they want to know everything. I'm sure, in their lust for revenge, they think they do. But something tells me they really don't. I mean, really, really don't.

[sarabelle]

18. They may be sorry for opening up again this line of investigation.

Steel was not the only source of warnings to the US about Russian interference. Others may come forward that will ultimately add veracity to the warnings and basis for the intel operations by the US intel community. There were several sources for alerting the Obama administration to Russian interference. Reopening this issue may confirm the necessity for believing the Steel dossier.

[Judi Lynn]

21. Great post. Welcome to D.U., sarabelle.

[sarabelle]

26. Thank you Judi Lynn. I am one of your most ardent fans. Your posts are very enlightening. nt

[stopdiggin]

22. possible misinformation

It has been speculated that Steele might have been fed misinformation (probably along with good/valid material) as part of the overall Russian scheme of disruption. The Russian's have been honing this type of disinformation campaign for years. Steele, having dealt with this system for years, was undoubtedly supremely aware of the duplicitous nature of any intel coming out of certain areas. In short, a person this experienced would be unlikely to couch anything as factual unless it was checked and verified against several other sources. Much more likely, in the margins, there would be lots of, "there were reports .." or "it was suggested .." As other posters have noted, Steele was only picking up what our own and other intelligence sources (mainly our allies) were hearing at the same time. Even if the Steele report was horribly flawed (which I doubt) .. it would have had no influence on the hundred other threads that were setting off intelligence alarms. Going after Steele is Republican spin .. and nothing more.

[meadowlander]

23. Except weren't they already surveilling Carter Page because he kept meeting Russian Intelligence

Agents? And then kept going to Russia? And taking money to speak at organisations backed by the Kremlin?

[atreides1]

24. The IG was compromised with the McCabe investigation!

I believe that the IG was compromised during the McCabe investigation! Michael Horowitz is a Trump man...

[Freethinker65]

27. Hmm. The investigation was NOT based on the Steele dossier

I think the WH wants everyone to concentrate on the dossier that included lots of truth and some disinformation.

I suspect our former allies intelligence services will come forward to say that they provided information that was even more valuable to the FBI. It was an investigation into unprecedented Russian meddling in our election and intelligence services saw it as it happened.

Trump and the WH may very well get away with it by saying they were unaware/duped. This might even have been true at the beginning, especially for clueless Trump (everyone, even some really shady characters, just love him so much they want to help out of the goodness of their hearts), but when confronted with evidence he was being used, his ego just could not admit it.

The Steele dossier is/was not crucial to the investigation.

[gldstwmn]

39. Do they really want to whack this hornet's nest?