Trump Demands Christopher Steele Be Extradited and Jailed After Court Shreds Infamous Dossier
President Donald Trump on Saturday called for extraditing and jailing former British spy Christopher Steele, whose dossier of discredited claims about Trump became part of the FBI investigation that sought — and failed — to find links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“This man should be extradited, tried, and thrown into jail. A sick lier who was paid by Crooked Hillary & the DNC!” Trump tweeted.
“Bring back Steele!!!” he also tweeted.
This man should be extradited, tried, and thrown into jail. A sick lier who was paid by Crooked Hillary & the DNC! https://t.co/ywMBeAgaGz
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2020
Bring back Steele!!! https://t.co/jL5c8WF28Z
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2020
Steele returned to the news Wednesday after he lost a court case concerning material that was part of his dossier.
In a ruling, a British court shredded the Steele dossier and ordered that Steele should pay 18,000 British pounds (about $23,000) each to two bankers who he said funneled illegal cash to Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to The Daily Caller.
The judge also ruled that the dossier was inaccurate when it said the bankers gave Putin foreign policy advice.
The dossier of unfounded allegations had its roots in the 2016 presidential campaign as a piece of opposition research funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign.
But once the information began to emerge, the allegations were used by the FBI as part of its request for a warrant to surveil Trump adviser Carter Page for potential ties to Russia.
Although the full nature of the FBI’s doubts about the dossier has not been established, the FBI was aware that at least some pieces of the dossier were inaccurate even as the FBI was using it to obtain court permission to conduct surveillance on the Trump campaign.
Some journalists noted that the ruling links back to current probes of the FBI.
#FISA British court orders ex-spy Christopher Steele’s firm to pay limited damages to 2 Russian bankers for “inaccurate” or “misleading” material in dossier. Why it matters: Use of dossier central to ongoing Durham investigation @CBSNews READ Court docs: https://t.co/sEAG6lzU9f pic.twitter.com/Vjpogkmioz
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) July 9, 2020
British judge concludes FBI knew from start that the ‘ultimate client’ for the Steele dossier was Clinton campaign and that research project was commissioned ‘to ensure Hillary Clinton’s election as President.’ So why then wasn’t FISA court told? https://t.co/H3F5ypKgZF
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) July 8, 2020
In April, Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin summed up their frustration with the FBI’s use of the dossier as a crutch in comments posted to Grassley’s website.
“For years, the public was fed a healthy diet of leaks, innuendo and false information to imply that President Trump and his campaign were part of a Russian conspiracy to spread disinformation. The FBI’s blind pursuit of the investigation, despite exculpatory and contradictory information, only legitimized the narrative. The mounting evidence undercutting this narrative should have stopped the investigation early in its tracks. Instead, it took several years and millions in taxpayer dollars to conclude that the allegations were baseless,” the senators said in a joint statement.
Grassley is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Johnson chairs the Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
“Had FBI leadership heeded the numerous warnings of Russian disinformation, paid attention to the glaring contradictions in the pool of evidence and followed long-standing procedures to ensure accuracy, everyone would have been better off. Carter Page’s civil liberties wouldn’t have been shredded, taxpayer dollars wouldn’t have been wasted, the country wouldn’t be as divided and the FBI’s reputation wouldn’t be in shambles,” the statement said.
“It’s ironic that the Russian collusion narrative was fatally flawed because of Russian disinformation. These footnotes confirm that there was a direct Russian disinformation campaign in 2016, and there were ties between Russian intelligence and a presidential campaign – the Clinton campaign, not Trump’s.”
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