Democrat accusers made heavy use of disinformation from Russia to target Trump

by WorldTribune Staff, September 15, 2017

Democrats have repeatedly used the discredited Russian-sourced “dossier” by an ex-British spy to build their case of alleged “collusion with Russia” by President Donald Trump and his campaign team.

“If anyone colluded with the Russians, it was the Democrats,” a former Trump campaign adviser told Rowan Scarborough in a report for The Washington Times.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California is one of several Democrats to have used the Christopher Steele dossier to make the case for ‘collusion with Russia’ against President Donald Trump’s campaign team. / Reuters

“After all, they’ve routinely shopped around false claims from the debunked (Christopher) Steele dossier, which listed sources including senior Kremlin officials,” said the campaign adviser, who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing investigations. “If anyone should be investigated in Washington, it ought to be Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, Mark Warner and their staffers.”

The adviser was referencing Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; Sen. Mark Warner, Virginia Democrat and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; and Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat on the House intelligence panel.

Steele, a former British intelligence agent, has admitted that information in the dossier is unreliable.

As first reported by The Washington Times on April 25, “Steele filed a document in a sealed court case in London acknowledging that a major dossier charge about hacking Democrats’ computers was unverified. The entire dossier never should have been made public and Fusion GPS should not have passed it around, Steele said in a filing defending himself against a libel charge.”

Fusion GPS, the research firm funded with money from a Hillary Clinton supporter, distributed the dossier among Democrats and journalists. The dossier made its was to the FBI, which used it in part to investigate Trump’s campaign aides.

According to Scarborough’s report, “Steele makes clear that his unproven charges came almost exclusively from sources linked to the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He identified his sources as ‘a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure,’ a former ‘top level Russian intelligence officer active inside the Kremlin,’ a ‘senior Kremlin official’ and a ‘senior Russian government official.’ ”

Steele “clearly states that his anti-Trump accusations are from the Kremlin, which means some Democrats have been willingly repeating Moscow propaganda for public consumption in Washington,” Scarborough wrote.

Schiff read from the dossier extensively at a March hearing that included then-FBI Director James Comey and Navy Adm. Michael Rogers, who leads the National Security Agency.


Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, who also sits on the House intel committee, lauded Steele’s Kremlin sourcing.

“I want to take a moment to turn to the Christopher Steele dossier, which was first mentioned in the media just before the election and published in full by media outlets in January,” Castro said. “My focus today is to explore how many claims within Steele’s dossier are looking more and more likely, as though they are accurate.

“This is not someone who doesn’t know how to run a source and not someone without contacts. The allegations it raises about President Trump’s campaign aides’ connections to Russians, when overlaid with known established facts and timelines from the 2016 campaign, are very revealing.”

Rep. Andre Carson, Indiana Democrat, said: “There’s a lot in the dossier that is yet to be proven, but increasingly as we’ll hear throughout the day, allegations are checking out.”

On MSNBC in March, Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California said she believed the dossier section on Trump and supposed sex acts with prostitutes in Moscow were true.

“Oh, I think it should be taken a look at,” she said. “I think they should really read it, understand it, analyze it and determine what’s fact, what may not be fact. We already know that the part about the coverage that they have on him with sex actions is supposed to be true. They have said that that’s absolutely true. Some other things they kind of allude to. Yes, I think he should go into that dossier and see what’s there.”


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