Donald Trump Russia dossier

On January 11, 2017, the media reported on the existence of an unsubstantiated dossier about United States President-elect Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia. The 35-page dossier claims that Russia was in possession of damaging information about Trump which could be used for purposes of blackmail, if Trump fails to cooperate with the Russian government. The dossier further alleges that Trump has been cultivated and supported as a presidential candidate by Russia for over five years, with the overall aim of creating divisions between western alliances, that Trump has extensive ties to Russia, and that there had been multiple contacts between Russian officials and people working for Trump during the campaign.

Dossier

On October 31, 2016, a week before the election, Mother Jones reported that a former intelligence officer, whom they did not name, had produced a report based on Russian sources and turned it over to the FBI. The report alleged that the Russian government had cultivated Trump for years:

The "Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years. Aim, endorsed by PUTIN, has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance." It maintained that Trump "and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals." It claimed that Russian intelligence had "compromised" Trump during his visits to Moscow and could "blackmail him."

The report further alleged that there were multiple in-person meetings between Russian government officials and individuals established as working for Trump. The former intelligence officer continued to share information with the FBI, and said in October 2016 that "there was or is a pretty substantial inquiry going on." In January 2017, the officer's identity was revealed.

According to reports, the firm's investigation was initially funded by Never Trump Republicans and later by the Democrats. Steele decided to also pass on the information to British and American intelligence services because he believed that the findings were a matter of national security for both countries. However, he became frustrated with the FBI, which failed to investigate his reports and chose instead to focus on investigating Hillary Clinton's emails. According to The Independent, Steele came to believe that there was a "cabal" inside the FBI, particularly it's New York branch linked to Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani, which blocked any attempts to investigate the links between Trump and Russia. As a result he passed on what he discovered to a reporter from Mother Jones magazine. Shortly after the election, Senator John McCain, who had been informed about the alleged links between Kremlin and Trump, met with former British ambassador to Moscow Andrew Wood. Wood confirmed the existence of the dossier and vouched for Steele. Subsequently McCain obtained the dossier from Steele's intermediary in December and took it to the FBI himself. He provided the document directly to FBI director James Comey.

Trump and Barack Obama were briefed on the existence of the dossier by the chiefs of several U.S. intelligence agencies in early January. Joe Biden has confirmed that he and the president had received briefings on the dossier, and the allegations within.

Authorship

An independent British spy Christopher David Steele has been named as the source of the material. Called by the media a "highly regarded Kremlin expert" and "one of MI6's greatest 'Russia specialists", Steele formerly worked for the British intelligence agency MI6 and is currently working for Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd., a private intelligence company based in London. According to the BBC, Steele is not the only source for the information in the report. Before his spying career, Steele had previously been president of the Cambridge Union in 1985.

Public release

On January 10, 2017, CNN reported that classified documents presented to Obama and Trump the previous week included allegations that Russian operatives possess "compromising personal and financial information" about Trump. CNN stated that it would not publish specific details on the memos because they had not yet "independently corroborated the specific allegations." Following the report, BuzzFeed published a 35-page dossier that it said was the basis of the briefing, including unverified claims that operatives had collected "embarrassing material" involving Trump that could be used to blackmail him. A senior U.S. intelligence official disputed CNN's claim that Trump had been previously briefed on the contents of the memos. Contrary to the official's claim, Clapper released a statement which suggested "that CNN's original report was correct."

The existence of the dossier was first reported by CNN on the afternoon of 11 January. Although its existence had been "common knowledge" among journalists for around half a year at that point, the Telegraph asserted that Steele's anonymity had been "fatally compromised" after CNN published his nationality. The Independent reported that Steele had fled his home in England several hours before the release of the report and "went to ground" after "realizing it was only a matter of time until his name became public knowledge," and "now fears a prompt and potentially dangerous backlash against him from Moscow." Steele worked for Orbis Business Intelligence, Ltd. at the time the dossier was authored, and Orbis director Christopher Burrows would not "confirm or deny" that Orbis had produced the dossier.

The BBC has claimed the existence of a second dossier and stated that three independent sources from Steele within British intelligence back Steele's account, writing "the CIA believes it is credible that the Kremlin has such kompromat—or compromising material— on the next US commander in chief" and "a joint taskforce, which includes the CIA and the FBI, has been investigating allegations that the Russians may have sent money to Mr Trump's organisation or his election campaign."

Responses

During a press conference on January 11, 2017, Trump denounced the unsubstantiated claims as false, saying that it was "disgraceful" for U.S. intelligence agencies to report them. He refused to answer a question from CNN's senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta, arguing that the network was disseminating fake news. CNN defended how it had reported the story, arguing that it had published "carefully sourced reporting" on the matter which had been "matched by the other major news organizations," as opposed to BuzzFeed's posting of "unsubstantiated materials." James Clapper described the leaks as damaging to US national security but his statement also confirmed the original report by CNN. This also contradicted Trump's previous claim that Clapper said the information was false; Clapper's statement actually said the intelligence community has made no judgement on the truth or falsity of the information.

Russian press secretary Dmitry Peskov insisted in an interview that the document is a fraud, saying "I can assure you that the allegations in this funny paper, in this so-called report, they are untrue. They are all fake."

See also

• 2016 United States election interference by Russia

References

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