Spooks, politicos and lawyers collide to throw more questions than answers around the Steele Dossier which purported to show Trump’s Kremlin connection before the 2016 election. A Russian analyst has been arrested by US authorities for lying. He was the source for the most incendiary allegation that Trump was compromised during a trip to Moscow in November 2013 for the Miss Universe beauty pageant. Trump has denied the claim however, a report by the Senate intelligence committee said that the FSB spy agency presided over a network of secret cameras inside the Ritz-Carlton hotel where Trump stayed, including in guest bedrooms.
In 2019, special counsel Robert Mueller said no criminal wrongdoing had taken place between the Trump campaign and Moscow but he noted there were multiple contacts in 2016 between Russian spies and Trump aides. The Kremlin had run a “sweeping and systemic” operation to help Trump win, Mueller said. The bipartisan report by the Senate intelligence committee was dismissive of Steele’s dossier, but corroborated key elements in it.
Former MI6 spy Christopher Steele, 24 June 1964 was born five days after Boris Johnson so has a similar Saturn opposition Uranus Pluto square Mars in Gemini – scattergun and uber-excitable. With the Jupiter opposition Neptune adding a streak of over optimism – all of which may have sent him jumping to conclusions and relying on his unreliable judgement. His Cancer Sun does trine Saturn which might give him some anchoring.
His relationship chart with Trump is all over the place through this December and more so in 2022/23, so more may emerge to clear the fog.
But who’d know? Some of the dossier appears to be on the money and intelligence is often straws in the wind, which sometimes prove to be accurate and sometimes not. And sometimes the truth only emerges fifty years down the line, if then.
@
As I said in another Steele post, I agree dirty tricks are perpetrated on both sides of the aisle during a campaign. But they generally stop after the election and they don’t enlist the FBI. For me that is the most troubling aspect of this. It went on for years. The weaponization of the FBI, formally the domain of Republicans (which I am not) has been taken over by the other side. Stzrok’s emails to Page, The Durham investigation and Christopher Wray’s apology for how they conducted their application for FISA warrants is proving that. That is/was a huge problem for a democracy.
The problem is bigger than Trump or Clinton/Biden.
@ Roderick:
“If the Steele dossier is not true why are Trump and Republicans so obsessed with discrediting it?”
Because it was financed by the Clinton campaign to smear Trump. Sussman presented it to the FBI but did not inform them that he was working for Clinton. Not that it mattered much in the end. The FBI enventually found out it was garbage but used it anyway to get the FISA warrant on Carter Page and the ensuing YEARS of Russian Collusion nonsense.
Greg, Try a little nuanced thinking. Many things may be true on both sides of the political aisle but Trump’s Russia connection is only disputed by those who are so brainwashed by him they have taken leave of their rational senses.
It is always salutary to hear from those of an alternative persuasion since it makes bizarre election results more foreseeable. But I won’t have arrant nonsense posted here.
“In 2019, special counsel Robert Mueller said no criminal wrongdoing had taken place between the Trump campaign and Moscow but he noted there were multiple contacts in 2016 between Russian spies and Trump aides.”
It seems more complex than what we are made to believe thus far. Trump claimed victory and yes the report concluded that the investigation did not find “sufficient evidence” that the campaign “coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities”. But Investigators ultimately had an incomplete picture of what happened due in part to communications that were encrypted, deleted, plus several persons connected to the campaign made false statements, obstructed investigations or declined to testify at all. In addition Mueller believed a sitting president is immune from criminal prosecution. As such, the investigation “does not conclude that the President committed a crime”; however, “it also does not exonerate him”, with investigators not confident of Trump’s innocence. We also learned that Mueller failed to follow Trump’s money trail. Andrew Weissmann, federal prosecutor who played a senior role in Mueller’s investigation, claims in a new book. “That is, we backed down — the issue was simply too incendiary; the risk, too severe.” The money trail, which runs through Deutsche Bank, may be the best way to discern Trump’s ties to Russia, Putin and his Russian mob — that job may yet to be done by the Manhattan district attorney. Based on Marjorie’s astrological forecast of Trump there is more to come and her comment on Steele above “more so in 2022/23, so more may emerge to clear the fog.”…
Mueller undoubtedly ducked and that was an act of cowardice, sigh. We’ve had similar major inquiries on key events and situations in the UK and the end result was also damp squib. He deserves to hang his head in shame.
I believe that someone threatened the safety of Mueller and his family.
What a hall of mirrors! It’s interesting to look at Igor Danchenko’s planets. 5th May, 1978. He’s the Ukrainian-born Russian citizen who is accused of making false statements to the FBI and the (or a?) source of information in the Steele dossier. Danchenko’s Taurus Sun opposes Uranus in Scorpio – fitting neatly on top of Steele’s Jupiter opposition Neptune. Danchenko’s Sun is also in a Yod with Neptune in Sagittarius sextile Pluto in Libra. Might that describe someone who has high ideals, but also likes or wants power to make him feel secure?
Some of those rumours about Donald Trump were certainly around for quite a long time, pre dossier. Trump was a kind of celebrity, and surrounded by endless gossip for many years. Many of us, including me, certainly heard a number of things being passed around. According to Business Insider, his interest in doing deals in Russia dates back to 1986, when he met the Russian Ambassador to the US.
‘Trump’s interest in doing business in Russia was first piqued in 1986, when he met the Soviet ambassador Yuri Dubinin and they began discussing building a “large luxury hotel across the street from the Kremlin in partnership with the Soviet government,” as Trump recounted in his 1987 book, “The Art of the Deal.”‘
So the chances of the Kremlin keeping tabs on him are extremely likely! Whether or not that includes “kompromat”, as suggested by the Steele dossier, we do not know. Muddy waters.
Thanks Jane, I’m not sure why the word lies has people so exercised. They can be unintentional – repeated gossip or smears with no foundation. Steele has said not all of the dossier is true and Danchenko has admitted to lying – though he could, of course, have been paid/ or leant on to say that.
Always as well to keep an open mind
Yes, precisely! In this murky world, there are few absolute “truths” anyway as all intelligence people will tell you themselves. As for the kompromat situation, if there is anything (high probability I think) then the chances of anyone outside a tiny circle seeing it are virtually nil. And as you say, there’s always the double/triple/quadruple bluff to factor into the equation. Neptune in Pisces is having fun….
Well Australia certainly knew about Trumps Russian links in the 80’s and 90’s and it was on that basis he couldnt build casinos there.
All that upheaval in Russia at the time, mafia and kgb all intermingled, and still is.
Why does the title of the essay include the word ‘lies’, when nothing about the dossier’s claims have yet proved false?
Then one wonders why Trump and his operatives are going through such trouble trying to discredit the Steele dossier. That in itself is suspicious. If it’s nonsense why bother since he would have nothing to worry about.
I just hate smoke and mirror situations which you can’t pin down, with conspiracy theories going off in all directions. And it would have to be admitted Chris Steele’s chart isn’t exactly encouraging in terms of reliability.
But assuming the substance of the dossier is true, it could be both the Russians and Republicans have a vested interest in burying it pro tem. The GOP because he’s their totem figure; and the Russians because they want to keep their powder dry or at least out of sight, in the hope that the wrecker-in-chief gets re-elected to spread chaos around the western world yet again.
In that respect its not dissimilar to Cummings, he is as honourable and straight as a corkscrew, but yet may expose bigger lies and tell the truth in that instance. But of course its less credible.
Marjorie, no one expects intelligence to be 100%. It is a given that it is mostly speculation.
Durham is just another corrupt GOP lawyer.
Of course the Hillary haters believe that she is going to brought down by this nonsense when she has survived much worse.
100% Try 0%!
Not one of the allegations in the Steele Dossier was substantiated and the FBI knew it. They thought they could use it to unseat Trump. Strzok email to colleague/paramour Lisa Page:
PAGE: “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!”
STRZOK: “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.”
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/14/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-text-message-ig-report/index.html
What the heck are you talking about?
We know that people working on Trump’s campaign as early as 2015 were in contact with Russian intelligence.
That’s a fact that British and European members of Five Eyes intercepted those communications and alerted the FBI which pretty much ignored them until it was too late.
Even the Baltic country of Estonia picked those communications so stop pretending that the Steele dossier was ever the main reason for investigating Trump.
If the Steele dossier is not true why are Trump and Republicans so obsessed with discrediting it?
Exactly, Anita. I don’t understand the lying charge either because most people involved in the intelligence understand that information always comes with a caveat and that is the reason to be investigated further.
I remember reading something that the investigation was predicated on the Brits contacting the FBI that they had intercepted email and phone traffic between members of Trump’s campaign and Russians so the focus on the dossier as the genesis of the investigation is purely political.
It’s very easy create fake e-mails. Strangely I heard the story about Trump’s proclivities in Russia from an entirely different source long before it reached the Steele dossier (I was totally shocked at the time and was sure that it would prevent him from being elected, but that didn’t happen) and that the footage was kept in Putin’s personal safe as leverage. I think that is why Trump also thought he could lean on Ukranian prosecutors to dig the dirt on the Bidens. It had been done to him, so why not? I am wondering if there is another reason for the current effort to discredit Steele and his alleged sources. He would not have gone into hiding when he did unless he thought there was a real threat to his safety. There’s more to this…
Yes I did too.
This is a strange take. From the get go the dossier was put out there with the knowledge that about 30% may be true as is common in these situations. “Lies”seems like a NYT headline, not your usual style.