<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hillary-clinton" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hillary Clinton</a> suggested her onetime political rival, former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>, wants to &#8220;kill his opposition&#8221; because of his purported affinity for &#8220;strongmen&#8221; leaders such as Russian President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/vladimir-putin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vladimir Putin</a>.
“We haven’t talked much about the international arena, but, you know, his bromance with Putin,&#8221; said Clinton, who served as U.S. secretary of state and U.S. senator, during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UpNrRNL8Gw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">podcast</a> released last week.
&#8220;And it was actually called that I think by the former prime minister of Australia, who said he saw Trump with Putin and Trump was like, you know, just gaga over Putin because Putin does what he would like to do: kill his opposition, imprison his opposition, drive, you know, journalists and others into exile, rule without any check or balance.&#8221;
&#8220;That’s what Trump really wants,&#8221; Clinton added. &#8220;And so we have to be very conscious of how he sees the world because, in that world, he only sees strongmen leaders. He sees Putin, he sees [Chinese leader Xi Jinping], he sees Kim Jong Un in North Korea. Those are the people he is modeling himself after, and we’ve been down this road in our world history. We sure don’t want to go down that again.&#8221;
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The interview took place on the &#8220;Defending Democracy&#8221; podcast hosted by Marc Elias, who <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/1616613/lawyer-linked-to-steele-dossier-back-in-spotlight-working-for-mcauliffe-in-virginia-race/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">served</a> as the lawyer who directed funding from Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and Democratic National Committee that went toward British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2153086/christopher-steele-holds-firm-on-defending-discredited-dossier/#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noopener">now-discredited dossier</a> that contained allegations of a conspiracy between Trump and Russia.
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Running with the &#8220;Russiagate&#8221; narrative, which allegedly was the opposite of what some U.S. intelligence information <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cia-manipulated-evidence-to-hide-evidence-russia-wanted-clinton-to-win-in-2016-not-trump-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a>, Clinton said one of the reasons Putin &#8220;went after&#8221; her is &#8220;because he knew I would deal with him in an appropriate way and Trump would basically do whatever he wanted.&#8221; She added, &#8220;It&#8217;s really important to think about what could happen to our world with Trump back in the White House,&#8221; adding later that it was a &#8220;very scary prospect.&#8221;
Trump is running for re-election as the presumptive GOP nominee after his major primary rivals dropped out and he garnered enough delegates to clinch the party&#8217;s nomination. He is poised for a 2020 rematch against President Joe Biden in the general election. However, this year&#8217;s contest has a wild card with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. running as an independent.

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton Suggests Trump Wants To ‘Kill His Opposition’

2024 Election

Donald Trump

Elections

Politics

Steele Dossier

Former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> is suing British ex-spy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christopher-steele" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christopher Steele</a> over the discredited Steele Dossier that was intended to paint a picture of alleged collusion between Trump and Russia.
The lawsuit was filed by lawyers for Trump in <a class="c-link" href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/london" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/london" data-sk="tooltip_parent">London</a> and says that Orbis Business Intelligence, a consultant group founded by Steele, violated British data protection laws.
In a written witness statement, Trump <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12636387/donald-trump-calls-christopher-steele-russia-dossier-untrue-golden-showers-prostitutes-moscow.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that “not one of the damning allegations contained in the Steele reporting was ever corroborated.” 
Funds from Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-sec-boss-confronted-over-steele-dossier-payment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">went toward</a> Steele’s dossier, which made claims tying Trump to Russia that were later discredited.
In his statement, Trump said that the dossier had “numerous false, phony or made-up allegations,” including wild claims of “sex parties” in St. Petersburg, and that Russia did not have “sufficient material to blackmail” him.
“The only way that I can fully demonstrate the total inaccuracies of the personal data in the dossier is to bring these proceedings and to prove, by evidence at trial, that the data are false,” Trump, the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, said.
The dossier <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/christopher-steele-holds-firm-on-defending-discredited-dossier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> to establish a “well-developed conspiracy of co-operation” between Trump’s campaign and Russia, an allegation that was not backed up by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the collusion claims.
Trump’s lawyer Hugh Tomlinson <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-steele-dossier-lawsuit-london-russia-de956b079a1216526b84822b121acd04" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that the former president “suffered personal and reputational damage and distress&#8221; because of the dossier, which contained &#8220;shocking and scandalous claims.&#8221;
Antony White, a lawyer for Orbis, said that the case should be thrown out because too much time had passed and that BuzzFeed News was not supposed to publish the dossier.
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White claimed that Trump has “a long history of repeatedly bringing frivolous, meritless and vexatious claims for the purpose of vexing and harassing perceived enemies and others against whom he bears a grudge.”
Trump <a href="https://apnews.com/article/judge-dismisses-trump-lawsuit-against-clinton-1c49b9f65177507bb06115b631c8499d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously</a> tried to sue former top FBI officials and Clinton over the dossier, but his lawsuit was rejected by a federal judge.
According to a report from special counsel Robert Durham, the FBI <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-offered-to-pay-steele-1m-for-anti-trump-evidence-paid-possible-russian-spy-despite-knowing-his-info-was-bad" target="_blank" rel="noopener">had offered to pay</a> Steele up to $1 million for evidence linking Trump to Russia and paid Steele’s primary subsource hundreds of thousands of dollars even after the source was unable to provide evidence for any of his claims.

Donald Trump Sues Former British Spy in London Data Lawsuit

Trump Sues Christopher Steele Over ‘Shocking And Scandalous’ Claims Made In Discredited Dossier

Trump Sues Christopher Steele Over 'Shocking And Scandalous' Claims Made In Discredited Dossier

Christopher Steele

Courts

London

Russia

World

BuzzFeed News is shutting down just over a decade after its 2012 launch.
BuzzFeed Inc. CEO and founder Jonah Peretti announced the closure to staff on Thursday as part of a wider plan to cut BuzzFeed staff by 15% “across our Business, Content, Tech and Admin teams.” Chief Revenue Officer Edgar Hernandez and Chief Operating Officer Christian Baesler will also be leaving.
“It might not feel this way today, but I am confident the future of digital media is ours for the taking. Our industry is hurting and ready to be reborn. We are taking great pains today, and will begin to fight our way to a bright future,” Peretti said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/BenMullin/status/1649067421766938624">memo</a> to staff.
BuzzFeed News’ closure will affect about 60 people, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/business/buzzfeed-news-shut-down.html">The New York Times</a>. About a dozen staffers in the news division will be offered positions at BuzzFeed.com and The Huffington Post, another of BuzzFeed’s subsidiaries.
The bulk of BuzzFeed’s reporting will now be done under The Huffington Post, a leftist outlet with “a highly engaged, loyal audience that is less dependent on social platforms,” Peretti said.
BuzzFeed has <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/shareholders-buzzfeed-nasdaq-bzfd-lost-111743541.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">struggled</a> to make a profit, and its news division added to the parent company&#8217;s financial woes.
“I made the decision to overinvest in BuzzFeed News because I love their work and mission so much. This made me slow to accept that the big platforms wouldn’t provide the distribution or financial support required to support premium, free journalism purpose-built for social media,” Peretti said.
“I regret that I didn’t hold the company to higher standards for profitability, to give us the buffer needed to manage through economic and industry downturns and avoid painful days like today,” he continued. “I’ve learned from these mistakes, and the team moving forward has learned from them as well.”
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BuzzFeed News won one Pulitzer prize, awarded in 2021, for its reporting on the oppression of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province.
The news division is also well-known for being the first outlet to publish the infamous Steele Dossier that contained unfounded rumors and innuendo about former President Donald Trump. The dossier, funded by the Clinton campaign for opposition research, was used by the FBI to obtain warrants to surveil the former president’s 2016 campaign.

Jonah Peretti

BuzzFeed News To Shut Down After 11 Years

BuzzFeed

Huffington Post

Media

U.S.

Attorney General <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/merrick-garland" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Merrick Garland</a> shared on Tuesday his expectations for when a report from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/durham-loses-but-lays-bare-fbi-corruption-in-russia-collusion-trials/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Durham</a>&#8216;s special counsel investigation will be completed, and it doesn&#8217;t appear to be that far off in the future.
The rare update on Durham&#8217;s inquiry into potential misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe came during <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?526940-1/attorney-general-testifies-presidents-2024-budget-request" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testimony before</a> a Senate committee. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked Garland about why former Hillary Clinton campaign attorney <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-jury-clears-former-clinton-attorney-michael-sussmann-of-lying-to-fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Sussmann</a>, who was found not guilty of lying to the FBI in a blow to Durham&#8217;s investigation, <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/legacy_files/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/HJC_STAFF_FBI_REPORT.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">apparently had a badge</a> to <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/05/19/how-fbi-bigwig-aided-and-abetted-hillary-clinton-plot/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">get into</a> the bureau&#8217;s headquarters in the run-up to the 2016 election.
&#8220;On the particular question about Sussman, I think we’re going to have to wait until Mr. Durham finishes his report, which should be relatively soon,&#8221; Garland said.
“I certainly don’t in any way want to interfere with him,&#8221; Garland continued. &#8220;And he’s the one who would know the answer to that. On the more general question, I can certainly ask my team to look into how lawyers have special badges.&#8221;
Durham has been working on this investigation for nearly four years, dating back to the Trump administration. Though Durham <a href="https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/u-s-attorney-for-connecticut-john-durham-resigns/2432294/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resigned as U.S. attorney</a> after President Joe Biden took office, Garland allowed his special counsel probe to continue. Garland <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/27/politics/durham-garland/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testified to Congress in October 2021</a> that he hopes to make &#8220;as much as possible&#8221; of Durham&#8217;s report public, but not that he has &#8220;to be concerned about Privacy Act concerns and classification.&#8221;
The investigation has been cheered by former President Donald Trump and his allies while Democrats and others have criticized it as a politically tainted endeavor meant to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller and top officials from the FBI. Democrats have even begun to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/raskin-calls-for-weaponization-inquiry-into-durham-probe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">call for investigations</a> into Durham&#8217;s endeavor.
Durham has secured one guilty plea: that of former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who was accused of falsifying a document in efforts to renew the authority to conduct FISA surveillance on onetime Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page. Clinesmith was spared prison time and faced a <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/fbi-lawyer-clinesmith-one-year-bar-suspension-guilty-plea-fisa-deception" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one-year bar suspension</a>.
Last year, Durham endured setbacks when prosecutions against <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-jury-clears-former-clinton-attorney-michael-sussmann-of-lying-to-fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sussmann</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/igor-danchenko-source-of-steele-dossier-acquitted-in-blow-to-durham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Igor Danchenko</a>, a key source for British ex-spy Christopher Steele&#8217;s anti-Trump dossier, ended in acquittal in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia, respectively.
The last public update on the investigation provided by the Department of Justice came in December, just before Christmas, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doj-shares-update-on-john-durham-probe-spending" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in the form of a financial disclosure</a>.

John Durham

Attorney General Expects Durham Report ‘Relatively Soon’

Garland Shares Expectations For When Durham Report Will Be Released

Department of Justice

Merrick Garland

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a> offered <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/christopher-steele" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christopher Steele</a> $1 million if he could prove allegations recorded in his now-infamous <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/steele-dossier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dossier</a>, a senior FBI analyst said in court on Tuesday.
FBI analyst Brian Auten testified in the trial of Igor Danchenko, the primary source of allegations in Steele’s dossier, that the bureau placed a $1 million price tag on confirmation of the dossier’s outlandish allegations. Steele was unable to provide any evidence.
Auten said he and a group of FBI agents met with Steele in October of 2021 and offered the former British spy $1 million for evidence supporting the dossier, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/durham-probe-fbi-offered-christopher-steele-1-million-corroborate-trump-allegations-dossier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News</a>. The FBI’s offer came years after it had used the dossier’s claims to secure FISA warrants to surveil former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“On October 21, 2016, did you have any information to corroborate that information?” Durham asked Auten, referencing the date the first FISA application to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was filed.
“No,” Auten responded, according to Fox News.
Auten testified that the FBI offered Steele “up to $1 million” for proof substantiating allegations made in a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/steele-timeline/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">series</a> of reports to the bureau over the course of several months in 2016. The analyst said Steele never received any money because he could not “prove the allegations,” according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/11/politics/steele-dossier-fbi-durham-danchenko" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a>. Steel’s reports were eventually compiled into the dossier first published by BuzzFeed News in January 2017.
Danchenko has pleaded not guilty to lying to the FBI. His trial is the last scheduled as part of special counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump/Russia collusion hoax before Durham issues his final report.
Durham has scored one guilty plea from former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, who <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/19/former-fbi-attorney-pleads-guilty-durham-398605#:~:text=Kevin%20Clinesmith%20admitted%20to%20altering,Trump%20campaign%20adviser%20Carter%20Page." target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a> to altering an email that was used to obtain a FISA warrant against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Durham struck out against former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-jury-clears-former-clinton-attorney-michael-sussmann-of-lying-to-fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquitted</a> by a Washington, D.C., jury in May of a charge of lying to the FBI.
In July of this year, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that according to FBI whistleblowers, Auten was involved in suppressing an investigation into Hunter Biden during President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.
“[I]n August 2020, FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten opened an assessment which was used by a FBI Headquarters … team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease. Based on allegations, verified and verifiable derogatory information on Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as disinformation,” Grassley wrote in a <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/grassley_to_justice_deptfbipoliticalbiasfollowup.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

FBI Offered Christopher Steele $1M For Evidence Backing Up Dossier Claims About Trump: FBI Analyst

The shadowy Russian operative who was allegedly the key source for the discredited <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/steele-dossier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Steele dossier</a> that may have helped spur the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fbi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FBI</a>’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/despite-these-facts-the-left-are-still-obsessed-with-russian-collusion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump-Russia collusion probe</a> was put on the bureau’s payroll despite prior concerns he was an agent of Moscow, according to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/john-durham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Special Counsel John Durham</a>.
Durham revealed the explosive claim about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-durham-probe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Igor Danchenko</a> in a Tuesday court filing. Danchenko was paid by the bureau to be a confidential human source as the bureau conducted its &#8220;Crossfire Hurricane&#8221; investigation of Trump&#8217;s 2016 campaign even though officials had reason to know he had lied about the wild claims in the dossier and had previously investigated him for espionage, the prosecutor said.
&#8220;In March 2017, the FBI signed the defendant up as a paid confidential human source of the FBI,&#8221; Durham wrote in the newly unsealed court filing. &#8220;The FBI terminated its source relationship with the defendant in October 2020. As alleged in further detail below, the defendant lied to FBI agents during several of these interviews.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The FBI caught Steele primary subsource Igor Danchenko in a number of lies.
What did the FBI do in response?
It signed Danchenko up as a paid FBI confidential human source.
Durham&#39;s latest:<a href="https://t.co/cwjDi0Rmrd">https://t.co/cwjDi0Rmrd</a>
&mdash; Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) <a href="https://twitter.com/Techno_Fog/status/1569768090027671560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Danchenko is facing trial in federal court in Virginia on charges he lied to the FBI. He was swept up in Durham’s investigation into the origins of the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign, which appears to relied in part on a dossier of debunked claims put together by former British spy Christopher Steele on behalf of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Danchenko was Steele’s primary source for the dossier.
Steele was also a paid source for the bureau until he was fired in November, 2016. Durham’s latest revelation means that the bureau, then led by fiercely anti-Trump Director James Comey, quickly hired Steele’s key source, despite knowing that his dossier allegations were at the very least dubious.
Danchenko was also hired despite the FBI knowing he had previous ties to Russian intelligence, Durham revealed. The bureau had conducted a counterintelligence probe of Danchenko during the Obama administration after determining had had tried to buy classified U.S. information.
&#8220;In late 2008, while the defendant was employed by a prominent think tank in Washington, D.C., the defendant engaged two fellow employees about whether one of the employees might be willing or able in the future to provide classified information in exchange for money,” Durham wrote. “Based on this information, the FBI initiated a &#8216;preliminary investigation&#8217; into the defendant. The FBI converted its investigation into a &#8216;full investigation&#8217; after learning that the defendant (1) had been identified as an associate of two FBI counterintelligence subjects and (2) had previous contact with the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence officers.”
Durham said the FBI shut down the investigation in 2010, but only because it mistakenly believed Danchenko had left the U.S.
When the FBI hired Danchenko, he first denied ever having contact with Russian intelligence, Durham charged. But he later admitted that he had contact with two unnamed officials from the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence operatives, Durham said.
In the filing, Durham asked the court for permission to use Danchenko’s previously undisclosed alleged lies to the FBI to establish a pattern of deception that lent credence in the bureau and media to the claims against Trump. The most salacious of the dossier claims was that Trump consorted with prostitutes who he had pee on a bed at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Moscow.
Durham’s team intends to call the hotel’s former manager to testify that neither he nor his staff ever heard of or discussed the claims that the dossier attributed to them.

Clinton Attorney Michael Sussman Acquitted Of Charge Of Lying To The F.B.I.

FBI Had Suspected Russian Operative, Source For Trump Dossier On Payroll, Durham Charges

GOP lawmakers hammered former Secretary of State <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hillary-clinton">Hillary Clinton</a> after her former campaign manager <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-clinton-campaign-official-robby-mook-says-hillary-clinton-approved-handing-alfa-bank-claims-to-media-despite-doubts">revealed her central role in disseminating false claims</a> about former President Donald Trump and Russia’s Alfa-Bank during the 2016 presidential election.
Court testimony in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sussmann-trial-opens-lawyers-spar-over-defendants-2016-lie-to-fbi">the trial of cybersecurity attorney Michael Sussmann</a> revealed that Clinton personally approved the dissemination of later-debunked claims of a secret backchannel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa-Bank to the press. Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager, Robby Mook, said that the Clinton campaign’s evidence of the backchannel was dubious, but Clinton approved sending it to reporters anyway.
“Hillary Clinton and Jake Sullivan knew the Trump-Russia collusion dossier was false but pretended to play dumb with the American people,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1527739050039328768">said</a>. Sullivan, currently the White House national security adviser, worked on Clinton’s 2016 campaign as a senior policy adviser.
“Everyone involved in cooking up the false Trump-Russian collusion narrative should be held fully accountable — including Hillary Clinton,” she <a href="https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1528740582348271618">added</a>.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said in a radio interview over the weekend that Mook’s testimony is a “major scandal” and has shown that Clinton’s involvement in the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy theory is greater than previously known, according to <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/05/22/sen-johnson-says-sussmann-trial-reveals-clinton-corruption/">The New York Post</a>.
“They used individuals who had contracts with our Defense Department to mine this data and develop some kind of inference that Trump was colluding with Russia so that they could report that to the FBI [which could then] … report that to the American public as an October surprise,” Johnson said.
Special counsel John Durham has argued that Sussmann went to the FBI on behalf of the Clinton campaign to generate a federal investigation into Trump’s alleged connections to Alfa-Bank, and in the process, make the Alfa-Bank story more palatable to reporters. Sussmann, charged with lying to the FBI about representing the Clinton campaign during a 2016 meeting pitching the Alfa-Bank material, has claimed he did not attempt to hide his client despite texting then-FBI general counsel James Baker the day before the meeting <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/durham-trial-baker-100-confident-sussmann-told-him-he-was-acting-alone">requesting</a> that he was not acting on behalf of anyone, according to Baker.
The Clinton campaign used server data gathered by tech executive Rodney Joffe, who had contracted with the federal government to advise it on cybersecurity, to evidence its claim of a backchannel. Both the FBI and CIA <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/fbi-agent-at-sussmann-trial-bureau-rejected-alfa-bank-claims-within-days">looked</a> into the server data and dismissed it as any evidence of a secret backchannel.
“The fact that the Hillary Clinton campaign manufactured this entire Russian collusion hoax and the FBI … concluded that this is preposterous — it’s BS … And yet they set up the Mueller probe,” Johnson said. “Hillary Clinton on the issue of Alfa Bank said, ‘I just heard about this on the news.’ No! Their campaign planted it in the news, and, of course, those news outlets that had the story.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, hammered Clinton in a radio interview last week.
“You get [Fusion GPS co-founder] Glenn Simpson to peddle it to the press. You get Michael Sussmann, who’s working for you as your campaign lawyer, to take it to the FBI. And then you act like, oh, we don’t know where this came from,” Jordan <a href="https://radio.foxnews.com/2022/05/20/rep-jim-jordan-the-fbi-must-have-known-about-the-latest-bombshell-revelation-regarding-hillary-clinton-and-her-2016-campaign/">said</a>. “We were the ones supposedly peddling disinformation and making things up when in fact, it was them who did it all along. And frankly, the only thing we were kind of wrong about was it was a little bit worse than we even thought. Everyone was in on this.”

‘Should Be Held Fully Accountable’: Republicans Hammer Clinton For Peddling False Russia Collusion Claims

Republicans Hammer Clinton For Peddling False Russia Collusion Claims

Fake News

Jake Sullivan

Michael Sussmann

Robby Mook

Russiagate

Former President Donald Trump sued numerous people and entities involved with the Steele Dossier and the 2016 Russian collusion conspiracy on Thursday.
Trump’s <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.610157/gov.uscourts.flsd.610157.1.0.pdf">suit</a>, filed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida, accuses former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, the Democratic National Committee, and dozens of others of engaging in an organized plot to spread malicious and false information about Trump.
“In the run-up to the 2016 Presidential Election, Hillary Clinton and her cohorts orchestrated an unthinkable plot — one that shocks the conscience and is an affront to this nation’s democracy,” Trump’s suit begins. “Acting in concert, the Defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty. The actions taken in furtherance of their scheme — falsifying evidence, deceiving law enforcement, and exploiting access to highly-sensitive data sources — are so outrageous, subversive and incendiary that even the events of Watergate pale in comparison.”
“Under the guise of ‘opposition research,’ ‘data analytics,’ and other political stratagems, the Defendants nefariously sought to sway the public’s trust. They worked together with a single, self-serving purpose: to vilify Donald J. Trump,” the suit continues. “Indeed, their far-reaching conspiracy was designed to cripple Trump’s bid for presidency by fabricating a scandal that would be used to trigger an unfounded federal investigation and ignite a media frenzy.”
Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and his subsequent presidency was hounded by allegations that his campaign worked with Moscow to rig the 2016 presidential election. The allegations stemmed from the Steele Dossier, a report put together by former British spy Christopher Steele and funded by Clinton’s campaign.
Former special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of the alleged collusion after a roughly two-year investigation into the dossier and Russia’s role in the 2016 election.
Trump’s lawsuit alleges that the defendants violated U.S. RICO laws, or laws used against organized crime groups such as gangs and mafias, among other violations.
“The members of the Enterprise are a group of persons associated together for the common purpose of carrying on an ongoing enterprise; specifically, the Enterprise had a common, unlawful goal of dismantling the Plaintiff’s political career and/or impeding his ability to effectively govern through fraudulent, deceptive, and criminal means, including, but not limited to, falsely implicating the Plaintiff, the Trump Campaign, and the Trump Administration as colluding with Russia,” the lawsuit states, explaining its RICO case.
Combatting the false allegations cost Trump at least $24 million, according to the lawsuit.
“Among other things, the Plaintiff was forced to incur expenses in an amount to be determined at trial, but known to be in excess of twenty-four million dollars ($24,000,000) and continuing to accrue, in the form of defense costs, legal fees, and related expenses incurred in connection with his effort to defend against the Defendants’ actions and the various federal investigations and/or official proceedings which arose therefrom, in addition to the loss of existing and future business opportunities for himself, the Trump Campaign, and the Trump Organization LLC,” the lawsuit says.

Trump Sues Hillary Clinton, Dozens Of Others Over ‘Far-Reaching’ Russian Collusion Conspiracy

2016 Election

California Congressman Devin Nunes is retiring from Congress in 2022, reports KMJ&#8217;s Ray Appleton. The California radio station also noted that the representative is reportedly &#8220;taking a senior executive leader position in a soon-to-be launched Trump media enterprise.&#8221;
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MORE: <a href="https://twitter.com/DevinNunes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DevinNunes</a> is retiring after his term in congress in 2022. According to KMJ&#39;s <a href="https://twitter.com/RayAppleton?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RayAppleton</a> Congressman Nunes will be taking a senior executive leader position in a soon-to-be launched Trump media enterprise. <a href="https://t.co/Vw756M5Dkr">pic.twitter.com/Vw756M5Dkr</a>
&mdash; KMJ NOW (@KMJNOW) <a href="https://twitter.com/KMJNOW/status/1467973357928804353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 6, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Nunes is currently in his 10th term in Congress and has long been hailed as a hero by former President Donald Trump and his supporters for his drive to discredit the Steele Dossier.
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fact-check-republicans-famous-memo-on-fisa-abuse-blasted-by-democrats-ended-up-getting-it-mostly-right">reported</a> in 2019, even The Washington Post had to admit that Nunes was more correct in his assertions regarding the dossier and chief Trump critic Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) had been proven mostly wrong:
<blockquote>Now that Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has finally released his much-anticipated report on alleged misconduct by the FBI during the 2016 election, two famous memos — one released by Republican Rep. Devin Nunes while he was House Intelligence Committee chairman, and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who has since taken over the position — have come under renewed scrutiny. The memos presented dueling versions of how the FBI began to surveil Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in an effort to investigate alleged “collusion” with Russia.
So who had it right? A fact-checker for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/13/vindication-nunes-memo/">The Washington Post</a> has been forced to admit that Nunes got a “fair amount” right — in fact, his version of events aligned far more closely with what Horowitz found than the Democrats’ rebuttal.</blockquote>
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“[H]ow much is the Nunes memo itself vindicated?” The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake asks in a fact-check published Friday. “A fair amount, it turns out,” writes Blake, adding in an attempt at a qualifier “at least, in Horowitz’s estimation.”
Blake then walks through the parallel passages in each memo and compares them with what Horowitz’s extensive report concludes, beginning with the most important disagreement between the two: “how accurate and complete the four [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)] applications to surveil Page were.” It turns out that Nunes’ claims aligned more closely with what took place, while Schiff’s counter featured “probably the worst line of the Democrats’ rebuttal.”
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Another key claim made in Nunes’ memo is that the Democrat-funded dossier by Christopher Steele was “an essential part of the Carter Page FISA application.” The Democrats countered by claiming that the FBI “made only narrow use” of the notorious, unverified and salacious Steele dossier:
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While Blake describes the differences here as “nuanced,” the language in Horowitz’ report is clear enough: Nunes’ once again presents a more accurate description of events than the Democrats’.
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Nunes&#8217; retirement from Congress is huge in terms of shaking up the political landscape for the Republican party.
As mentioned by Politico&#8217;s Jake Sherman, Nunes &#8220;was in line to be Ways and Means chairman in the House Republican majority.&#8221;
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Devin Nunes is retiring. He was in line to be Ways and Means chairman in the House Republican majority 
He is “rumored” to be taking a job with the Trump media start up<a href="https://t.co/GhQEoyb3Ua">https://t.co/GhQEoyb3Ua</a>
&mdash; Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1467971604017815557?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 6, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Devin Nunes

Republican Devin Nunes Is Retiring From Congress

More than two years after Robert Mueller’s report dispelled the Steele dossier’s allegations of wide-ranging collusion between former President Donald Trump and the Kremlin, CNN has admitted that the Steele dossier may not be as authoritative as its anchors previously had reported.
“[F]ive years later, the credibility of the dossier has significantly diminished,” wrote Marshall Cohen in an article posted on CNN’s website last Thursday.
“Legitimate questions are now being raised about the dossier &#8212; how it was used by Democrats as a political weapon against Trump, how it was handled by the FBI and US intelligence agencies, and how it was portrayed in the mainstream media,” belatedly stated the 3,820-word article, titled “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/18/politics/steele-dossier-reckoning/index.html">The Steele dossier: A reckoning</a>.”
In fact, federal sources shredded the credibility of the dossier years ago. Robert Mueller <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/8-things-you-need-know-about-mueller-report-ben-shapiro">noted</a> in 2019 that his “investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded in his <a href="https://www.justice.gov/storage/120919-examination.pdf">December 2019</a> report that the dossier had “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-supercut-of-media-declaring-discredited-steele-dossier-is-legitimate">zero</a>” corroboration. We now know that as early as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/11/17/steele-dossier-guide-latest-allegations/">December 2016</a>, before Trump took office, Obama administration Assistant Attorney General Bruce Ohr expressed doubts because the report’s primary subsource, Igor Danchenko, lived in Washington, D.C. Danchencko has since been indicted for lying to federal officials about his sources
The CNN report even got facts wrong in its retrospective, falsely claiming that Special Counsel John Durham “hasn&#8217;t said in his recent indictments, spanning 66 pages, that the FBI or Mueller ever relied on Steele for anything beyond the [four fraudulently obtained FISA warrants for Trump aide Carter] Page surveillance.”
In fact, page 2 of Durham’s <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sco/press-release/file/1446386/download">39-page indictment</a> of Danchenko said that — relying on the fraudulent Steele dossier — FBI agents said that Carter Page was merely one “part of a ‘well-coordinated conspiracy of co-operation’ between Trump&#8217;s campaign and the Russian government.”
Like much of the legacy <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/from-impossible-to-credible-how-the-legacy-media-is-desperately-spinning-their-wuhan-lab-flip-flop">media’s about-face on the possible origins of COVID-19</a> from a Chinese laboratory such as the Wuhan Institute of Virology, CNN and other outlets claim their revised view of the salacious Steele dossier comes due to new revelations; yet in some cases, the underlying facts had been known for years.
For instance, CNN noted that the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign “paid for the research” — a fact, it acknowledges in the next sentence, was known “before the 2016 election,” and which its hosts have cited on the air for nearly five years.
CNN, which joins recent mea culpas from legacy media outlets like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/15/opinion/steele-dossier.html">The New York Times</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/11/23/steele-dossier-igor-danchenko-indictment-scrutiny/">The Washington Post</a>, has much to apologize for. Marshall Cohen admitted, “After wall-to-wall coverage of the Steele dossier, public opinion was quickly locked in on the question of collusion,” yet he never blames his own network’s years-long feeding frenzy over the now-discredited dossier.
For instance, CNN’s Don Lemon said that “much of the dossier has been corroborated” on November 15, 2017. The network’s Manu Raju reiterated that “some of those [allegations in the dossier] have been corroborated” on December 18, 2017.
CNN’s Alisyn Camerota <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/939263507144458240">told</a> Congressman Jim Jordan, “Your intel community has corroborated all of the details in there.”
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CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota falsely claims that the entire Trump dossier has been corroborated by U.S. intel agencies.
Washington Examiner on 11/19: FBI &amp; DOJ officials have told congressional investigators in that they have NOT been able to verify or corroborate the dossier. <a href="https://t.co/WaRvj1RRM5">pic.twitter.com/WaRvj1RRM5</a>
&mdash; Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/939263507144458240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2017</a></blockquote>
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CNN was far from alone in spreading misinformation about the Steele dossier. After the Mueller report took the wind out of her sails, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow instead summarized a footnote mentioning “a guy Trump actually did know from business connections in the former Soviet Union actually did get in touch with Michael Cohen to tell him to tell Trump that he was stopping the flow of some tapes from Russia.” Maddow said the report left this claim “dangling out there like a thread that’s screaming, ‘Tie me off!’” But Durham’s indictment states that Russian sources deny ever alluding to a Trump “pee tape” or allegations about Trump cavorting with Russian prostitutes during their conversations with Danchenko.
To this day, some in the legacy media continue to uphold the veracity of the Steele dossier and downplay their own role in spreading its contents. MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace said in December 2018 that, “to date, none of” the dossier “has been disproven and whole, big parts of it are holding up.”
This November 12, Wallace said that Danchenko’s indictment only proved that the document was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/smear-so-called-investigation-networks-ignore-and-spin-steele-dossier-indictment">still being “vetted.”</a>
“If you peek over at right-wing media, they are still taking a victory lap and feeling avenged around the dossier being further vetted,” she said. She then asserted that “most people covered it as, sort of, unvetted but something that was out there,” although she admitted that “other people went farther [sic] than that.”
CNN has flubbed its retrospective of the Steele dossier before. In a January 2019 article titled “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/07/politics/dossier-two-years-later/index.html">Revisiting the Trump-Russia dossier: What’s right, wrong and still unclear?</a>” CNN continued to claim that aspects of the Steele dossier had “since been confirmed,” citing events like Michael Flynn’s trip to Russia, which was public knowledge before the Steele dossier was produced. Authorities say Christopher Steele appears to have gathered some items from media reports, paid Danchenko for other information, then further extrapolated his own conclusions from Danchenko’s ill-sourced statements.
Bill Grueskin, a former academic dean at the Columbia Journalism School, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/15/opinion/steele-dossier.html">wrote</a> in The New York Times that the legacy media’s coverage of the dossier became “complicated because some reporters simply didn’t like or trust Mr. Trump or didn’t want to appear to be on his side.”
The Russian collusion “scandal” consumed the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency and paralyzed elements of the Republican Party in Congress, denying the president the ability to pass key promises of his 2016 presidential campaign.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

The CNN logo is seen atop its bureau in Los Angeles,

CNN: ‘The Credibility Of The’ Steele Dossier ‘Has Significantly Diminished.’ Network Now Has ‘Legitimate Questions’

Media Bias

Although the most lurid allegations of the Steele dossier about alleged connections between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia received saturation coverage for more than two years, the legacy media have largely ignored the indictment of the dossier’s prime source. When they have covered Special Prosecutor John Durham’s indictment of Igor Danchenko for lying, they have referred to it as a “smear,” a “so-called” investigation, or proof that the dossier has been “further vetted.”
On Wednesday, November 3, John Durham issued a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sco/press-release/file/1446386/download">39-page indictment</a> of Igor Danchenko, a U.S.-based Russian citizen who formerly worked at the left-of-center Brookings Institution. Fiona Hill introduced Danchenko to Christopher Steele, who was hired by the Democratic National Committee to compile a dossier of allegations about the Trump campaign’s ties to Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Danchenko created such unfounded rumors as claiming that future President Trump once hired Russian prostitutes to urinate on a Moscow bed where Barack Obama had slept. The indictment says Danchenko was responsible for “the allegation that there were communications ongoing between the Trump campaign and Russian officials and that … the Kremlin might be of help in getting Trump elected.”
Based on Danchenko’s alleged inside sources, the FBI wrote that there was “a well-developed conspiracy of cooperation between [the Trump campaign] and the Russian leadership,” because Vladimir Putin “feared” Hillary Clinton. And the FBI used the dossier to petition for four successive warrants to spy on Trump campaign official Carter Page. But that all turned out to be false.
Although Danchencko told the FBI that he obtained his information from Russians with direct knowledge of the allegations, an American public relations executive named Charles Dolan Jr. has <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/04/durham-probe-analyst-tied-to-christopher-steele-trump-russia-dossier-arrested.html">stepped forward</a> as the source of the misinformation. Durham has charged Danchenko with five counts of making false statements to federal investigators; the Russian could face a fine and up to <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1001">five years in prison</a> for each of the five counts.
While the allegations led to hours of banter on CNN and MSNBC, the refutation took virtually no time. The networks’ prime time hosts, who have led their broadcasts with in-depth coverage of congressional subpoenas against former Trump administration officials, have all but ignored the Danchenko indictment.
The most recent coverage came on Friday afternoon when Nicolle Wallace, the host of MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” who claimed the indictment merely meant the Steele dossier was being “further vetted.”
“If you peek over at right-wing media, they are still taking a victory lap and feeling avenged around the dossier being further vetted,” she said. She then asserted that “most people covered it as, sort of, unvetted but something that was out there,” although she admitted that “other people went farther [sic] than that.”
She then asked her guest, Clint Watts, to “speak to how far from reality this information space is at this point, by nature.”
Only Rachel Maddow covered the indictment in prime time, on November 4. “The unmistakable impression is that this indictment is designed to smear Christopher Steele’s intelligence reports as things that were deliberately made up and concocted by rascally Democrats,” <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/transcript-rachel-maddow-show-11-4-21-n1283316">said</a> Rachel Maddow on Thursday, November 4. She then attempted to support the veracity of the Steele dossier by interviewing former FBI agent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/peter-strzok">Peter Strzok</a>.
MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson referred to the indictment as the product of “the so-called Durham investigation.” Her guest, Ken Dilanian, then said, “Republicans, of course, are seizing on this in support of their longtime assertion that this whole Trump-Russian investigation is a hoax, is unfounded.”
CNN took a similar approach. “John Durham appears to be doing with these cases is trying to get at the dossier,” <a href="https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/cnr/date/2021-11-04/segment/08">said</a> CNN “justice correspondent” Evan Perez on November 4. “And I&#8217;ve got to tell you, having spent time looking at this, including the fact that the former president&#8217;s campaign chair was himself compromised by the Russians, back in 2016, it&#8217;s hard to say that the FBI had no reason to investigate some of these things.”
Even when the hosts tried to be honest, they allowed their guests to state misinformation without any correction. On November 4, CNN’s Jake Tapper referred to the Steele dossier as “that dossier of unproven, disproven, and lurid allegations about Trump.” But his guest, former Watergate figure John Dean, insisted without evidence that “there are things coming up about the fact the server between Moscow and the Trump headquarters was real, and there is more information coming out about that by experts who say, ‘Hey, this wasn’t a bogus report.’ There really were communications going on.”
In reality, the FBI <a href="https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/the-anatomy-the-clinton-campaigns-alfa-bank-smear">dismissed</a> allegations that the Trump campaign maintained a server that communicated surreptitiously with the Moscow-based Alfa Bank in 2017.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Igor Danchenko Arraigned For Charges Of Making False Statements To FBI

‘Smear,’ ‘So-Called’ Investigation: Networks Ignore And Spin Steele Dossier Indictment

MSNBC

Nicolle Wallace

Former State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus grilled Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) during Tuesday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The View&#8221; on ABC over Schiff&#8217;s past promotion of the now widely discredited Steele Dossier.
&#8220;You&#8217;ve been really prolific over the past few years being the head of the Intel Committee, and you defended, promoted, you even read into the Congressional Record the Steele Dossier,&#8221; Ortagus said. &#8220;And we know last week, the main source of the dossier was indicted by the FBI for lying about most of the key claims in that dossier.&#8221;
&#8220;Do you have any reflections on your role in promoting this to the American people?&#8221; she asked.
Schiff immediately deflected by attacking former President Donald Trump, despite not being asked about Trump, and by continuing to promote conspiracy theories related to Russia.
&#8220;But you&#8217;ve made false, spread disinformation yourself for years by promoting this,&#8221; Ortagus said. &#8220;I think that&#8217;s what Republicans and what people who entrusted you as the Intel Committee chair are so confused about your culpability in all this.&#8221;
Schiff refused to accept the premise of Ortagus&#8217; question and claimed that it was &#8220;impossible&#8221; to &#8220;have foreseen in advance that some people were lying to Christopher Steele&#8221; about political gossip.
&#8220;None of that is undercut, none of that serious misconduct is in any way diminished by the fact that people lied to Christopher Steele,&#8221; Schiff continued.
&#8220;No, I think just your credibility is,&#8221; Ortagus said.
WATCH:
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Adam Schiff defended his promotion of the STEELE DOSSIER by citing concerns about KONSTANTIN KILIMNIK, which are … not referenced (or even alluded to) anywhere in the dossier. <a href="https://t.co/dyfh6cJbmp">pic.twitter.com/dyfh6cJbmp</a>
&mdash; Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) <a href="https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/1458215337145602051?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 9, 2021</a></blockquote>
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TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>MORGAN ORTAGUS: So I want to ask you about something that&#8217;s in the news a lot right now. You&#8217;ve been really prolific over the past few years being the head of the Intel Committee and you defended, promoted, you even read into the Congressional Record the Steele Dossier. And we know last week, the main source of the dossier was indicted by the FBI for lying about most of the key claims in that dossier. Do you have any reflections on your role in promoting this to the American people?
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): Well, first of all, whoever lied to the FBI or lied to Christopher Steele should be prosecuted. And they are. And unlike in the Trump administration, if they&#8217;re convicted, they should go to jail, not be pardoned. So Donald Trump pardoned Roger Stone for lying, he pardon Michael Flynn for lying. If people like the FBI, they should go to jail. But at the beginning Russian investigation, I said that any allegations should be investigated. We couldn&#8217;t have known, for example, people were lying to Christopher Steele, so it was proper to investigate them. And let&#8217;s not forget what we learned in that investigation. We learned that the Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was giving internal polling data, campaign polling data, to Russian intelligence, while Russian intelligence was helping the Trump campaign.
ORTAGUS: And to be clear he was fired halfway through the campaign.
SCHIFF: Well, he may have been fired.
ORTAGUS: Yeah&#8211;
SCHIFF: &#8211;but the effort to get Russian help continued and even beyond the effort to get Russian help, the president also sought to get&#8211;
ORTAGUS: &#8211;but you&#8217;ve false, spread disinformation yourself for years by promoting this. I think that&#8217;s what Republicans and what people who entrusted you as the Intel Committee chair are so confused about your culpability in all this.
SCHIFF: Well, I completely disagree with your premise. It&#8217;s one thing to say allegations should be investigated, and they were. It&#8217;s another to say that we should have foreseen in advance that some people were lying to Christopher Steele, which is impossible, of course to do. But let&#8217;s not use that as a smokescreen to somehow shield Donald Trump&#8217;s culpability for inviting Russia to help him in the election, which they did, for trying to coerce Ukraine into helping him in the next election, which he did, into inciting an erection, insurrection, which he did. None of that is undercut, none of that serious misconduct is in any way diminished by the fact that people lied to Christopher Steele.
ORTAGUS: No, I think just your credibility is.</blockquote>

House Select Committee On Jan. 6 Votes On Holding Stephen Bannon In Criminal Contempt

Morgan Ortagus Grills Schiff Over Steele Dossier: You ‘Spread Disinformation Yourself For Years’

Adam Schiff

The View

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