Today the Huffington Post reported the identity of the ex-British spy who put together the damning information about Russia’s influence over Donald Trump.
The information included damaging information about Trump’s business and financial situation, and his connections to the Russian government. There were more sensational and salacious parts to the report as well. And there was information alleging ongoing contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
The intelligence dossier was the source of fireworks today at Trump’s first press conference in six months. Trump denounced the dossier as completely fake, saying “It never happened.” He also denied having seen the information during his intelligence briefing last week.
Although the dossier has apparently been circulating in intelligence circles for several weeks, the name of its author has not previously been known.
Today’s information revealed that the information was compiled by a man named Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent.
Steele is now the co-director of a private security and investigations firm in London. The company, Orbis Business Intelligence, was founded in 2009. It conducts investigation and intelligence gathering operations across international borders.
According to the report in the Huffington Post, the dossier consists of a series of memos that were written in the summer and fall of 2016, extending even into December of last year. The fact that all are unsigned makes it difficult to determine how accurate any of them are.
The source who provided the information for the report, which appeared originally in the Wall Street Journal today, said that Steele pulled the information together and also made arrangements to get that information to U.S. intelligence agencies, including the FBI.
Steele was not able to be reached for comment, but his business partner, Christopher Burrows, was. Burrows is also a former British government official. He said that while the company “has no political ax to grind,” he would neither confirm nor deny that they were involved in compiling the report.
The information in the dossier has not been verified by the U.S. government, but we know that it was given to the FBI by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona and no fan of the incoming President. We also know that the FBI is taking the matter very seriously, particularly the allegations of contact between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
Trump and his people insist that there is nothing to the story, and call it a “witch hunt.”
I guess we’ll see. But in the meantime, it seems to me that the people who insisted on investigating the incident in Benghazi with 33 Congressional hearings and four public hearing should at least be interested in getting to bottom of this Trump-Russia saga.
This video tied to the BBS is certainly fascinating in light of the situation. You know, the whole, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire” idea.
Featured image by FolsomNatural via Flickr. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
