'Trump dossier' on Russia links now part of special counsel's probe - sources

[webfact]

'Trump dossier' on Russia links now part of special counsel's probe - sources

By Mark Hosenball

 

U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One as they depart Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., on their way to Las Vegas, October 4, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The special counsel investigating whether Russia tried to sway the 2016 U.S. election has taken over FBI inquiries into a former British spy's dossier of allegations of Russian financial and personal links to President Donald Trump's campaign and associates, sources familiar with the inquiry told Reuters.

 

A report compiled by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele identified Russian businessmen and others whom U.S. intelligence analysts have concluded are Russian intelligence officers or working on behalf of the Russian government.

A spokesman for special counsel Robert Mueller declined comment. The FBI also declined comment.

 

Three sources with knowledge of Mueller's probe said his investigators have assumed control of multiple inquiries into allegations by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the election to benefit Trump, a Republican.

Russia has repeatedly denied any meddling in the election.

 

Two officials familiar with the investigations said that both Mueller's team and the Senate Intelligence Committee are seeking any evidence that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort or others who had financial dealings with Russia might have helped Kremlin intelligence agencies target email hacking and social media postings undermining Trump's election opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

 

On Wednesday, the Senate panel's chairman Richard Burr told reporters that the issue of whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia remains an open question.

 

"We have not come to any determination on collusion," Burr said.

 

Trump, who has called allegations of campaign collusion with Moscow a hoax, has faced questions about the matter since he took office in January.

 

Trump was told by former FBI director James Comey that Steele's report contained salacious material about the businessman-turned-president.

 

Burr said on Wednesday that the Senate panel had made several attempts to contact Steele and to meet him and "those offers have gone unaccepted."

 

"The committee cannot really decide the credibility of the dossier without understanding things like who paid for it, who are your sources and sub-sources," Burr said.

 

Burr said the panel wanted to finish its investigation by the end of the year.

 

Although several news organizations, including Reuters, were briefed on Steele's dossier before the election in November, most decided not to report on the material because its inflammatory and sometimes salacious content could not be verified.

 

In a report published in January four U.S. intelligence agencies said they took the dossier's allegations seriously.

 

Separately, three Russian businessmen, Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven and German Khan have sued Washington investigations firm Fusion GPS and its founder, Glenn Simpson, with allegations that they were libeled in Steele's dossier.

 

A spokeswoman for Simpson and Fusion GPS declined to comment on the lawsuit filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington.

 

The lawsuit said that Steele's reports were "gravely damaging" to the businessmen because they accused them "of criminal conduct and alleged cooperation with the 'Kremlin' to influence the 2016 presidential election."

 

The information on Trump collected by Steele, whom officials say was one of MI6's most respected Russia hands, was laid out last year in political "opposition research" initially financed by supporters of one of Trump's Republican primary election opponents. After Trump won the Republican nomination in July, backers of Clinton picked up the support of Steele's work.

 

The lawsuit said the dossier's allegations are false in implying an improper "ongoing" relationship between the businessmen, the Alfa Group financial company in which they were investors and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that a Russian government official acted as middleman in such contacts.

 

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Additional reporting by John Walcott; editing by Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-10-05

[boomerangutang]

The dossier is evidence, but it's just one spoke in the wheel.  There's a lot more evidence, much of which we (the general public) haven't been apprised of yet.

 

Republicans in Congress and the WH are locking arms and doing all they can to thwart the investigation.  Will they succeed?  Possibly.  They're experts at dirty tricks.   .....and Trump still holds the trump cards;  PARDONS.

 

Found it interesting that one of the Dem members of the Congressional panels investigating this, Eric Swalwell, commented about Kushner:  "He's the type of man where, if you asked him 'from which direction the sun rose in the morning,' you wouldn't get a straight answer." 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2017 by boomerangutang

[pegman]

So when does the Trump/Russian hookers pee pee tape get released? 

[Boon Mee]

Too bad there's nothing there. 

This witchhunt is a big fat nothing burger ? 

[ilostmypassword]

11 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

Too bad there's nothing there. 

This witchhunt is a big fat nothing burger ? 

I thought there was plenty of indication to support an investigation but your detailed critique here has convinced me otherwise. Truly a forensic masterpiece.

[Boon Mee]

1 hour ago, ilostmypassword said:

I thought there was plenty of indication to support an investigation but your detailed critique here has convinced me otherwise. Truly a forensic masterpiece.

Yes, succinct and to the point.

 

If there was anything - even a smidgen of 'dirt' on Trump et. al. we would have heard something after all these long months. 

Edited October 5, 2017 by Boon Mee

[riclag]

1 hour ago, Boon Mee said:

Yes, succinct and to the point.

 

If there was anything - even a smidgen of 'dirt' on Trump et. al. we would have heard something after all these long months. 

I agree.

Maybe Muller will put it to rest soon.Then American's can start to really MAGA.

[Boon Mee]

1 minute ago, riclag said:

I agree.

Maybe Muller will put it to rest soon.Then American's can start to really MAGA.

Muller hasn't run out of steam yet - hiring more Clinton-supporting lawyers for his never-ending witch hunt. 

[craigt3365]

3 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Too bad there's nothing there. 

This witchhunt is a big fat nothing burger ? 

Too bad some can't see the truth. Trump supporters don't want the truth.

[craigt3365]

1 hour ago, Boon Mee said:

Yes, succinct and to the point.

 

If there was anything - even a smidgen of 'dirt' on Trump et. al. we would have heard something after all these long months. 

We have seen the dirt. The list of his lies is now a mile long. Or more!

 

So you are ok with his family using personal emails for white house business?  Didn't he blast Hillary for that?  LOL

[kamahele]

3 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Too bad there's nothing there. 

This witchhunt is a big fat nothing burger ? 

If it was a big fat nothing burger, Trump's own justice department probably wouldn't have appointed a special council to investigate.....

[kamahele]

1 hour ago, Boon Mee said:

Yes, succinct and to the point.

 

If there was anything - even a smidgen of 'dirt' on Trump et. al. we would have heard something after all these long months. 

All we have heard about Trump is dirt but that doesn't matter to a true  supporter

[joecoolfrog]

6 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Too bad there's nothing there. 

This witchhunt is a big fat nothing burger ? 

You know precisely the same as myself which is zero , why the need for the propaganda ?

[jcb2001]

3 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

We have seen the dirt. The list of his lies is now a mile long. Or more!

 

So you are ok with his family using personal emails for white house business?  Didn't he blast Hillary for that?  LOL

Hey wait a minute.  I still haven't gotten over all the things Obama did and got away with.  Now we have to worry about what Trump is doing?

[William C F Pierce]

6 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Yes, succinct and to the point.

 

If there was anything - even a smidgen of 'dirt' on Trump et. al. we would have heard something after all these long months. 

For someone like Trump who hides his business dealings and tax affairs from America. When other Americans are more open about these things. Then it is safe to assume that Trump is an expert at hiding his dirt under his business and political carpet.

 

[attrayant]

7 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

If there was anything - even a smidgen of 'dirt' on Trump et. al. we would have heard something after all these long months.

 

You must be deaf.

[jcsmith]

8 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Too bad there's nothing there. 

This witchhunt is a big fat nothing burger ? 

Oh there's nothing there... Except the fact that his campaign manager, son and law, son, and the crazy general took meetings with the Russians during the election, that timelines coordinate with the first leaks of information, that they can't deny their intentions when Donny is responding that this sounds great. Flynn and Manafort will almost certainly be charged. And for some strange reason we keep hearing of more meetings with the Russians that all of Trump's inner circle apparently had mass amnesia about before.

[funandsuninbangkok]

 Back to the old files. 

 

Guess not much new found

 

boring

[craigt3365]

2 hours ago, jcb2001 said:

Hey wait a minute.  I still haven't gotten over all the things Obama did and got away with.  Now we have to worry about what Trump is doing?

Impossible to compare Obama and Trump. Impossible.

[Trouble]

"On Wednesday, the Senate panel's chairman Richard Burr told reporters that the issue of whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia remains an open question."

 

News conference was a big nothing. They were only blowing their own horns. Possibly they were preparing the public for the fact that they haven't found much. They were basically begging for people to contact them with information. It was laughable.  Parts of the Steele dossier was pure fiction from the start. Neither Muller nor Congress will get anything from Steele as he would never reveal any sources because it would come to light that it was partly fiction. The only part of the dossier that is believable is that the Kremlin might have targeted Trump, as they have most likely targeted every president, congressional member, and other prominent people over the years with the hope of finding something advantageous for them to use. 

 

Were there any possible contacts between anyone in the campaign and Russians, seems likely. Were those contacts collusion about trying to influence the election, most probably not. The FBI and Congress have been playing with this for over 9 months and not one hint of actual collusion has been leaked. With everything in government leaking like a sieve, it's kind of obvious they have nothing. When one thinks of the tens of thousands of man-hours (probably hundreds of thousands) by investigators of the Justice Department, both houses of Congress, the intelligence agencies, and now Mueller's team, it is mind-boggling and as yet nothing of consequence has been leaked that points to anything nefarious by Trump, his family, or the Trump campaign, despite issues with Flynn and Manafort.

 

Lastly, it seems the likely result of these massive investigations will be the fact that people with Russian backing bought ads on social media trying to influence the electorate one way or another. Politicians, political parties, lobbyists and interests groups have done this kind of thing for years.  Ironically most of the hostile ads in newsprint, radio, television and now on social media are mostly malicious and maligning hype and no one should believe them anyway. Ignorance of the American public is mostly to blame. Did the Russians directly influence the election, probably not.  Any hacking of elections machines and tallies has been debunked although it looks like attempts may have been made. Should oversight of elections, particularly with computers so increasingly involved, be increased, most assuredly.  In the end, the year of investigations will yield relatively nothing of value. We will probably learn nothing more than that the Russians have been and will continue to target people and try to  influence elections not unlike what the USA has done in the past in various countries.  Nothing new here.  I surely hope that it is correct that there is a chance that the investigations will be concluded by the end of the year. Time to move on.

[Scott]

Troll post removed.  

[Srikcir]

21 hours ago, webfact said:

lawsuit filed on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington.

This may explain in part why Steele refuses to appear before the Senate panel. One step on American soil and he'll be served with any lawsuits or subpoenas.

[craigt3365]

2 hours ago, Trouble said:

"On Wednesday, the Senate panel's chairman Richard Burr told reporters that the issue of whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia remains an open question."

 

News conference was a big nothing. They were only blowing their own horns. Possibly they were preparing the public for the fact that they haven't found much. They were basically begging for people to contact them with information. It was laughable.  Parts of the Steele dossier was pure fiction from the start. Neither Muller nor Congress will get anything from Steele as he would never reveal any sources because it would come to light that it was partly fiction. The only part of the dossier that is believable is that the Kremlin might have targeted Trump, as they have most likely targeted every president, congressional member, and other prominent people over the years with the hope of finding something advantageous for them to use. 

 

Were there any possible contacts between anyone in the campaign and Russians, seems likely. Were those contacts collusion about trying to influence the election, most probably not. The FBI and Congress have been playing with this for over 9 months and not one hint of actual collusion has been leaked. With everything in government leaking like a sieve, it's kind of obvious they have nothing. When one thinks of the tens of thousands of man-hours (probably hundreds of thousands) by investigators of the Justice Department, both houses of Congress, the intelligence agencies, and now Mueller's team, it is mind-boggling and as yet nothing of consequence has been leaked that points to anything nefarious by Trump, his family, or the Trump campaign, despite issues with Flynn and Manafort.

 

Lastly, it seems the likely result of these massive investigations will be the fact that people with Russian backing bought ads on social media trying to influence the electorate one way or another. Politicians, political parties, lobbyists and interests groups have done this kind of thing for years.  Ironically most of the hostile ads in newsprint, radio, television and now on social media are mostly malicious and maligning hype and no one should believe them anyway. Ignorance of the American public is mostly to blame. Did the Russians directly influence the election, probably not.  Any hacking of elections machines and tallies has been debunked although it looks like attempts may have been made. Should oversight of elections, particularly with computers so increasingly involved, be increased, most assuredly.  In the end, the year of investigations will yield relatively nothing of value. We will probably learn nothing more than that the Russians have been and will continue to target people and try to  influence elections not unlike what the USA has done in the past in various countries.  Nothing new here.  I surely hope that it is correct that there is a chance that the investigations will be concluded by the end of the year. Time to move on.

With all the dots that are connecting, guaranteed there's a connection. Time to get to the bottom of it. Not move on.

 

With this new revelation, it's entirely possible Russia influenced the election.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/03/politics/russian-facebook-ads-michigan-wisconsin/index.html

 

A number of Russian-linked Facebook ads specifically targeted Michigan and Wisconsin, two states crucial to Donald Trump's victory last November, according to four sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Some of the Russian ads appeared highly sophisticated in their targeting of key demographic groups in areas of the states that turned out to be pivotal, two of the sources said.

[Scott]

Troll post reported and removed.  

[F4UCorsair]

22 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

The dossier is evidence, but it's just one spoke in the wheel.  There's a lot more evidence, much of which we (the general public) haven't been apprised of yet.

 

Republicans in Congress and the WH are locking arms and doing all they can to thwart the investigation.  Will they succeed?  Possibly.  They're experts at dirty tricks.   .....and Trump still holds the trump cards;  PARDONS.

 

Found it interesting that one of the Dem members of the Congressional panels investigating this, Eric Swalwell, commented about Kushner:  "He's the type of man where, if you asked him 'from which direction the sun rose in the morning,' you wouldn't get a straight answer." 

 

 

 

There's a lot more evidence, much of which we (the general public) haven't been apprised of yet.

 

But obviously you have been advised.......how else would you know there is a 'lot more evidence' if not??

 

We've been hearing this for a long time now, but no evidence yet.   Exactly when will it all be revealed??

[F4UCorsair]

17 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Yes, succinct and to the point.

 

If there was anything - even a smidgen of 'dirt' on Trump et. al. we would have heard something after all these long months. 

 

We have BM!!    Lots of rumours, but nothing founded in fact.   Maybe there will be, but a thinking person, at this stage, would have to doubt there will be anything of any significance.

Edited October 6, 2017 by F4UCorsair

[F4UCorsair]

10 hours ago, William C F Pierce said:

For someone like Trump who hides his business dealings and tax affairs from America. When other Americans are more open about these things. Then it is safe to assume that Trump is an expert at hiding his dirt under his business and political carpet.

 

 

 

Is the President REQUIRED BY LAW to release his tax returns??

 

This link says not     http://www.robertreeveslaw.com/blog/candidates-tax-returns/

 

It's merely a loose 'convention', but 7 of the past 34 Presidents haven't released their returns, so it's not 'almost all' who have.

 

Trump has filed a legally required 104 page "Personal Financial Disclosure" as REQUIRED BY LAW!!

 

Why the wild salivating??

Edited October 6, 2017 by F4UCorsair

[craigt3365]

21 minutes ago, F4UCorsair said:

 

We have BM!!    Lots of rumours, but nothing founded in fact.   Maybe there will be, but a thinking person, at this stage, would have to doubt there will be anything of any significance.

So the firing of Flynn, Comey, the Manafort revalations, Trump juniors admitted meetings with Russian officials and his statements regarding getting money from that country,  etc, etc, etc, isn't enough? Plus there is lots more.

 

Takes time to connect the dots. But it's coming together. What will happen after that? Who knows. But there's too much there to say it's insignificant.

[selftaopath]

16 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

Too bad some can't see the truth. Trump supporters don't want the truth.

They avoid the Truth at EVERY turn. They also claim patriotism/love of country, but repeatedly put party above country. So blind - so blind.

[selftaopath]

16 hours ago, kamahele said:

All we have heard about Trump is dirt but that doesn't matter to a true  supporter

I think a more accurate descriptor for his followers are DEFENDERS.