Steele dossier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steele_dossier The media, the intelligence community, and most experts have treated the dossier with caution due to its unverified allegations In April 2016, an attorney for Hillary Clinton's campaign and the DNC separately hired Fusion GPS to investigate Trump, while The Free Beacon stopped its backing in May 2016. The media, the intelligence community, and most experts have treated the dossier with caution due to its unverified allegations [4] In June 2016, Fusion GPS subcontracted Steele's firm to compile the dossier. DNC officials denied knowing their attorney had contracted with Fusion GPS, and Steele asserted he was not aware the Clinton campaign was the recipient of his research until months after he contracted with Fusion GPS.[11][12] Following Trump's election as president, funding from Clinton and the DNC ceased, but Steele continued his research and was reportedly paid directly by Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn R. Simpson.[13] While compiling the dossier, Steele passed information to both British and American intelligence services.[14][15] The Steele dossier, also known as the Trump–Russia dossier, is a private intelligence report written from June to December 2016 containing allegations of misconduct, conspiracy, and co-operation between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the government of Russia during the 2016 election. The Guardian has described it as "one of the most explosive documents in modern political history".[1] Some allegations have been corroborated, while others remain unverified. The dossier, leaked without permission, is an unfinished 35-page compilation of raw intelligence[2] based on information from witting and unwitting anonymous sources known to the author, counterintelligence specialist[3] Christopher Steele,[4] a former head of the Russia Desk for British intelligence (MI6), written for the private investigative firm Fusion GPS. The dossier's 17 unredacted reports allege that Trump campaign members and Russian operatives had conspired to co-operate in Russia's election interference to benefit Trump.[5] It also alleges that Russia sought to damage Hillary Clinton's candidacy, including sharing negative information about Clinton with the Trump campaign.[6] The draft dossier was published in full by BuzzFeed News on January 10, 2017.[7] Several mainstream media outlets criticized BuzzFeed's decision to publish the reports without verifying their allegations,[8][9] while others defended its decision.[10] In October 2015, Fusion GPS was contracted by conservative political website The Washington Free Beacon to provide general opposition research on Trump and other Republican presidential candidates. In April 2016, an attorney for Hillary Clinton's campaign and the DNC separately hired Fusion GPS to investigate Trump, while The Free Beacon stopped its backing in May 2016.[4] In June 2016, Fusion GPS subcontracted Steele's firm to compile the dossier. DNC officials denied knowing their attorney had contracted with Fusion GPS, and Steele asserted he was not aware the Clinton campaign was the recipient of his research until months after he contracted with Fusion GPS.[11][12] Following Trump's election as president, funding from Clinton and the DNC ceased, but Steele continued his research and was reportedly paid directly by Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn R. Simpson.[13] While compiling the dossier, Steele passed information to both British and American intelligence services.[14][15] The media, the intelligence community, and most experts have treated the dossier with caution due to its unverified allegations, while Trump has denounced it as fake news.[16] The U.S. intelligence community took the allegations seriously,[17] and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated every line of the dossier and spoke with two of Steele's sources.[18] The Mueller Report, a summary of the findings of the Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, contained passing references to some of the dossier's allegations but little mention of its more sensational claims.[18] Some aspects of the dossier have been corroborated,[19][20] in particular its main allegations that Putin and Russia actively favored Trump over Clinton[21][14] and that many Trump campaign officials and associates had multiple secret contacts with Russians.[22][23] However, many allegations in the dossier remain unverified, and one allegation against Michael Cohen was dismissed by the Mueller Report.[24] The Daily Telegraph has reported that anonymous sources believe Russian intelligence agencies may have sought to create doubt about the veracity of the dossier.[25] Contrary to a conspiracy theory[26][27] pushed by Trump,[28] Fox News,[29] and many of Trump's congressional supporters, the dossier was not the trigger for the opening of the FBI's "Crossfire Hurricane" counterintelligence investigation into "whether individuals associated with the Donald J. Trump for President Campaign were coordinating, wittingly or unwittingly, with the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election."[30][31][32] It did play a central role in the seeking of FISA warrants on Carter Page[30] in terms of establishing FISA's low bar[33] for probable cause.[34]
Nice to know the FBI was hard at work fact-checking and found absolutely none of it was true. Fucking awesome. https://www.realclearinvestigations...ossier_yet_said_nothing_for_years_769667.html
"FBI Director Christopher Wray has kept Auten in his job at the bureau, where he continues to work at headquarters as a supervisory intelligence analyst. The FBI provided him counsel at his private Senate hearing." womp