Team Mueller Sat Down With ‘Golden Showers’ Investigator (VIDEO)



For Donald Trump and anyone else whose standard response to anything that even suggests Russia hacked the presidential election is “(noun) (verb) FAKE NEWS!”, the last 48 hours have been rather uncomfortable, to say the least. Not only did we get solid confirmation that Russian-flavored Facebook ads ran in Michigan and Wisconsin, but the Senate Intelligence Committee joined the growing consensus that Russia did indeed meddle with the campaign.

Late Thursday afternoon, CNN got wind of a development that may be even more ominous for Trump in the long run. Investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller met with the man who compiled a dossier alleging that Russia had compromising information about Trump and tried to help him win.

CNN’s Evan Perez broke this story on Thursday’s edition of “The Situation Room.” Watch here.

It turns out that several of Mueller’s investigators met with retired British intelligence officer Christopher Steele this past summer. It’s not clear what and how much information Steele provided to Mueller. However, Perez said that whatever was discussed has prompted Mueller and his investigators to find out if any contacts between Trump campaign operatives and Russian operatives broke U. S. law.

Anyone who has followed this story closely should not be surprised that Mueller and Steele crossed paths. After all, Steele has a sterling reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. For those who don’t remember, Steele initially started compiling the dossier at the request of Trump opponents on both sides of the aisle. However, he was so alarmed by what he learned that he felt compelled to alert the FBI. Senator John McCain managed to get his hands on the dossier in November, and passed it to then-FBI director James Comey. As we now know, both President Obama and then President-elect Trump were notified about it in early January.

The FBI took Steele seriously enough that it was willing to pay him to continue his digging. But CNN has learned that the intelligence community took Steele’s findings so seriously that when it released a report finding that the hacking took place on the personal order of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, it kept anything that could be traced back to Steele out of the final report. Why? They had already corroborated many of Steele’s findings, but didn’t want to disclose how much had been corroborated lest it risk compromising sources.


That contrasts sharply with outgoing Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s public claim just days before Trump took office that the intelligence community had yet to make any determination whether the dossier was reliable. But as we’ve already seen, Clapper and other senior intelligence officials were already convinced there was a there there. For instance, they told their Israeli counterparts not to share information with Trump until they were sure he hadn’t been compromised. They also used Steele’s information to get a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant on Trump aide Carter Page. Additionally, a number of other Western intelligence agencies were already convinced that Steele was on to something.

The intelligence community has yet to corroborate any of the more lurid allegations made in the dossier–including reports that Trump was seen performing “golden showers” in a hotel. However, it has been able to corroborate a number of key portions. For instance, the FBI has been able to confirm that a number of conversations detailed in the dossier indeed took place. Steele also correctly fingered a Russian diplomat as a key player in the hacking campaign. All of this bolstered confidence in the dossier’s overall contents. The fact that Mueller is even looking at it only serves to bolster it further.


Earlier in the week, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr fumed that Steele hadn’t been willing to sit down with Senate investigators. Well, now we probably know why. And if Mueller is taking this dossier seriously, it’s yet more proof that this is most assuredly not fake news.

(featured image courtesy Mike Maguire, available under a Creative Commons-BY license)

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.