Let's get your facts straight. The investigation, before Simpson hired Steele to delve deeper into Simpson's findings, was approximately 9 months long -- it began in the Fall of 2015. During this period Simpson's investigation was funded by a Republican donor apparently interested in stopping Trump from getting the nomination. During that time Simpson, who is also a Russian expert, turned up alarming information on Trump's activities in Russia and his intentional courting and cultivation by Russians that cast serious doubt on Trumps veracity with regard to Trump's own account of his connections to Russia. Simpson's investigation indicated that Trump was involved with Russians to a degree that could potentially put U.S. interests in danger. Once it was clear Trump would be the Republican nominee, the original project funder lost interest in funding the project further. By this time , however, Simpson, had turned up enough information to convince him of the serious implications of Trump's Russian connections. He therefore wanted to continue the project. He shopped around potential sources of funding. The DNC was an obvious candidate. He succeeded in getting the DNC, through one of the DNC's lawyers, to agree to fund continuation. Simpson then hired Steele (~ June , 2016). Simpson was familiar with Steele because of their shared interest in Russian affairs. Simpson knew Steele was a highly competent, and very experienced, expert on Russian affair. After Steele was hired, he turned up additional information and filled in gaps in what was known already. He summarized the investigation in a report, now known as the "Steele Dossier." Both Simpson and Steele agreed that the information they had turned up was alarming and should be turned over to the FBI. They did that. Be it noted, however, that at the time the report was turned over to the FBI, the Agency had well before begun an investigation into certain Trump campaign personnel and their Russian connections. Furthermore, at least by 2015, and before the 2016 Presidential campaign had got underway, U.S. intelligence agencies had been tipped of by a Russian informant that the Russian government was planning a massive cyber attack on the U.S. Much of the ground work, by the time Steele was hired, had been completed under a Republican's sponsorship. Given this fact, it would be difficult for any rational person to conclude that the Steele dossier was the brain child of Hillary Clinton; yet we continue to read such nonsense. Furthermore, the final phase of the project that produced the "dossier" was funded by DNC money, not Clinton money as you state, without, I might add, one shred of evidence beyond innuendo. Ms Clinton did not hire Simpson's company; the DNC did. (Did Ms Clinton exhibit extraordinary control over how the DNC spent its money; yes she did! And many have commented that her interference was inappropriate at best.) Now I do understand where your information comes from. It is from highly biased sources such as The House Intelligence Committee, Breitbart, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, etc. That probably explains why you want to twist facts around as you do. We also know that Ms Clinton tended to treat the DNC money as though it was hers, and tended to exert control over how DNC money was spent -- probably to an extent that if not illegal was certainly unethical. So I can see it's an easy leap for you to assume that Clinton money funded the "Steele Dossier". But that in itself would not invalidate the dossier, even if it were true. And it is not. However, despite what tantalizing talk show and television programming the various alternate facts provide, the real facts still remain unaltered. Neither Simpson nor Steele had any reason to kowtow to the Clinton's and produce a false and salacious report. In fact, Simpsons livelihood depends on the veracity and independence of his work. And it would be bizarre in the extreme if Steele, a retired and highly regarded MI6 Russian Expert, would risk his reputation and integrity by agreeing to falsify work for a U.S. political candidate he probably has never met. The point we all need to get very serious about is this. The FBI has been able to confirm some of what is in the report! Steele has pointed out which parts of his report are less reliable than others. This however does not negate the very real threat that our our President is being manipulated and used by a very unsavory Russian regime. Our President has been lying to us, that's already been easily confirmed. We should all be gravely concerned.
After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I'm offering is the truth. Piezoe... when you wrote this... was it true or were you misrepresenting reality? "Jem you do know that the original source of the money to fund the investigation into Trump's business in Moscow, i.e., the "Steele Dossier," was some fat cat Republican donor."
Check my post above. I just now added an additional source of biased information that I'm quite certain has influenced you. Just looking now at your statement above :"Jem you do know that the original source of the money to fund the investigation into Trump's business in Moscow, i.e., the "Steele Dossier," was some fat cat Republican donor." You are a simple minded but nevertheless lovable person. I should have said "i.e., what became the Steele Dossier," There now. Would that help? You have not paid attention to Simpson's background. He, like Steele, is an Expert on Russian doings. You know Simpson was involved in the Magnitsky business! Simpson is like Steele. Two peas in a pod. Simpson had laid the ground work, he told Steele where to look. Simpson's part took much longer than Steele's. Simpson was starting from scratch.
piezoe... I am not arguing whether Trump could be guilty or not. Many times I have said I hope they get Trump, if he is guilty. are you off your meds or something? you keep bringing up red herrings. so did you lie or not?
I did not lie (not intentionally). See my mea culpa above that I added to my response. Here is what you need to know. That Steele Dossier, though it was written by Steele, is based on nine months of legwork by Simpson and his colleagues at fusion who pointed him in the right direction. Not acknowledging Simpson's contribution would be like Watson, Crick, and Wilkins not acknowledging Rosalind Franklin, who, had she not died, would have at least shared the Nobel prize with them. And one could say, honestly and truthfully, that Franklin's work was the key. Without her, there would have been no prize for young Watson and Old Crick and Old Wilkins. In fact, had Pauling gotten the Franklin xray diffraction pattern before Watson, who was fortuitously at her seminar, Pauling (and Franklin had she lived) might well have shared the prize instead. (Which would have been a record third prize for Pauling -- he narrowly missed a fourth too.) Pauling had it exactly right, other than he had the phosphate groups on the inside when they needed to be on the outside. Franklin's seminar would have told him that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin
so now that we have the timeline straight... lets find out how some of the information may have gotten into the dossier. "Winer further acknowledged that while at the State Department, he shared anti-Trump material with Steele passed to him by longtime Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal, whom Winer described as an “old friend.” Winer wrote that the material from Blumenthal – which Winer in turn gave to Steele – originated with Cody Shearer, who is a controversial figure long tied to various Clinton scandals." so I am not saying this absolves trump but the clintons may have had a ton to do with the the dossier.