The standard response from Donald Trump or his minions when questions are asked about Trump’s potential ties to Russia has been “(noun) (verb) fake news.” But in the last 72 hours, that response has looked less and less credible.
First, Attorney General Jeff Sessions was caught red-handed lying about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the United States during the campaign, and was all but forced to recuse himself from any investigation of Kremlin meddling in the election. Then, the White House was forced to admit that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with that same ambassador at Trump Tower during the transition. Now comes word that the Senate Intelligence Committee wants to talk to the former British spy who compiled a dossier that reportedly details how Trump was compromised by Moscow.
The Independent, one of the UK’s major newspapers, reports that a number of committee members from both parties really want to hear from former MI6 agent Christopher Steele. According to several of Steele’s friends, Steele is reluctant to come to the United States to testify. He was forced to flee his home outside London soon after his identity was revealed, and has been in hiding ever since.
However, Intelligence Committee members are willing to arrange meetings with Steele either in the UK or on neutral ground. Several of Steele’s friends told The Independent that Steele is willing to talk “if certain security conditions are met.”
Trump has dismissed Steele as “a failed spy” and the dossier as a fabrication. However, Steele was, and still is, highly respected in both British and American intelligence circles. Watch this profile about him that aired on CBC’s “The National” in Canada.
Steele developed an extensive network of contacts as a spy in Moscow during the 1990s. He was hired by a number of Trump opponents on both sides of the aisle to compile the dossier. What he found was so alarming that he alerted the FBI. He was already considered very credible in Washington, having helped blow the lid on a massive corruption scandal at soccer’s governing body, FIFA. Senator John McCain arranged to get the dossier in November, and it was ultimately passed to FBI director James Comey.
According to The Independent, the FBI was actually willing to pay Steele to continue his investigation. That deal fell through, but Steele continued to press forward after being alarmed at what he had discovered.
As we now know, he wasn’t the only one. Apparently American intelligence agents took Steele seriously enough that they actually warned their Israeli counterparts not to share secrets with Trump until they were assured he hadn’t been compromised. In turn, Israeli intelligence passed the dossier to BuzzFeed, which roiled the Internet when it published the dossier’s contents in January. A number of other intelligence agencies have been looking into Steele’s findings for some time. Indeed, the dossier made its way to the United States through one of the three Baltic states.
The Senate’s desire to talk to Steele comes on the heels of FBI agents confirming a number of details in the dossier. For now, they have yet to confirm some of the more salacious anecdotes–including claims that Trump engaged in “golden showers” and other graphic sexual acts. However, they have been able to confirm that a number of conversations described in the dossier indeed took place–boosting investigators’ confidence in Steele’s findings.
The Independent’s story went live on Thursday night. Trump hasn’t found the time to rage-tweet about it yet. Hmmm–maybe he knows that this isn’t fake news after all.
(featured image courtesy Mike Maguire, available under a Creative Commons-BY license)
