Christopher Steele Archives - The Minnesota Sun

Ex-Spy Steele, Who Promoted Discredited Russia-Trump Collusion, Now Roils U.K. with New Theory

August 15, 2024 Just the News

Christopher Steele, a former MI6 agent whose discredited Democrat-funded research contributed to the now-debunked Russia collusion probe, is promoting a fresh round of Russian hysteria. This time, he is suggesting Moscow is behind protests against immigration in Britain and that Brexit leader Nigel Farage should be investigated.

Steele asserted that there is clear Russian involvement in the anti-immigrant protests—some of which have turned violent in the wake a stabbing in Southport, England and general backlash against the pro-multicultural British immigration policy—in an echo of his spurious claims that saturated the 2016 American presidential election and helped fuel the sprawling three-year investigation of Trump and his campaign.

Commentary: Let the Voters and Not the Deep State Decide Who Will Be the Next President

July 19, 2024 Minnesota Sun Staff

When Donald Trump seemed to have a lock on the 2016 Republican primary, the Democratic Party concluded that the people could not be counted on to do the “right thing” of electing the Democratic candidate in waiting Hillary Clinton.

What followed were eight long years of extralegal efforts to neuter candidate, then President, then ex-President, and then candidate again, Donald Trump.

Victor Davis Hanson Commentary: Understanding How Left-Wing Conspiracies Work

June 18, 2024 Minnesota Sun Staff

Since 2016, there has been a clear pattern to left-wing conspiracies — beyond the obvious fact that they traffic in lies, stereotypes, and paranoia to serve precise political agendas.

We now know that the conspiracy to cook up the Russian-collusion hoax — Donald Trump allegedly conniving with Vladimir Putin to rig the 2016 vote — was perpetrated by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Its funding was hidden by the Democratic National Committee, the law firm Perkins Coie, and Fusion GPS.

Commentary: The Left Knows Leftism Doesn’t Work

June 11, 2024 Minnesota Sun Staff

Joe Biden in front of a burning building (composite image)

Do not expect the radical left to survey the wreckage of socialism and communism in history and accept that statism impoverishes people and erodes their freedoms. There will never be admissions by our elite that progressivism exists mainly for the acquisition of power by the utopian and virtue-signaling few, who ensure that they are never subject to the baleful implementation of their ideological agendas on the rest of us.

Still, leftists look around at what they have done to America in the last four years and implicitly know that the plan did not work, the people detested it, or both.

Ex-DOJ Official and Wife Had Bigger Roles in Dossier than Known: Durham Report

May 16, 2023May 16, 2023 RealClearWire

While it’s bad enough the debunked dossier the FBI used to spy on the Trump campaign was paid for by the Clinton campaign and authored by a foreign FBI informant and his carousing researcher, the newly released report of Special Counsel John Durham strongly suggests a top Justice Department official and his wife had an early hand in shaping the political rumor sheet.

According to the 306-page report, former Justice Department prosecutor Bruce Ohr’s wife Nellie Ohr first plowed the ground for the dossier with a series of a research reports she wrote for Fusion GPS, the D.C.-based opposition research firm the Clinton campaign commissioned to dig up dirt on Trump and Russia.

Commentary: The Tentacles of the Social Media Octopus

October 18, 2022October 17, 2022 Minnesota Sun Staff

by Victor Davis Hanson A shared theme in all dystopian explorations of future and current totalitarian regimes – whether China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, or Cuba – is government control of all media information, fueled by electronic surveillance. A skeptical public learns to say one thing publicly but quite…

FBI Intel Analyst Tells Durham Agency Offered Steele $1 Million to Corroborate Dossier

October 12, 2022October 11, 2022 Just the News

An FBI analyst on Tuesday in federal court told Special Counsel John Durham the agency offered former British spy Christopher Steele “up to $1 million” to corroborate evidence in his now-discredited dossier that was central to a federal investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.

Commentary: To Spy on a Trump Aide, the FBI Pursued a Dossier Rumor the Press Shot Down as Nonsense

May 5, 2022May 4, 2022 RealClearWire

The FBI decision to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser hinged on an unsubstantiated rumor from a Clinton campaign-paid dossier that the Washington Post’s Moscow sources had quickly shot down as “b******t” and “impossible,” according to emails disclosed last week to a D.C. court hearing the criminal case of a Clinton lawyer accused of lying to the FBI.

Though the FBI presumably had access to better sources than the newspaper, agents did little to verify the rumor that Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page had secretly met with sanctioned Kremlin officials in Moscow. Instead, the bureau pounced on the dossier report the day it received it, immediately plugging the rumor into an application under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to wiretap Page as a suspected Russian agent.

Commentary: Conspirators in Their Own Words

March 22, 2022 Admin

For the last five years, the Left—defined as the fusion of the mainstream media, Silicon Valley, the radical new Democratic Party, and the vestigial Hillary Clinton machine—has crafted all sorts of conspiracies to destroy their perceived conservative enemies.

Their method has focused on one major projection: alleging conspiracy on the part of others, which is a kind of confirmation of their own conspiracies to destroy their opponents in general, and Donald Trump in particular.

Commentary: Hillary Clinton’s Greatest Masterpiece

February 18, 2022February 17, 2022 Minnesota Sun Staff

Hillary Clinton’s never-ending shenanigans in 2015-2016 could be summarized as an attempted slow-motion coup.

Four years of national hysteria, a divided nation, and dangerous new tensions with Russia were some of the wages of Clinton’s machinations.

Durham Zeroes In on Clinton Campaign, Could Call Some Aides to Testify, Court Memo Reveals

December 23, 2021 Admin

Hillary Clinton’s team long fought to keep its ties to Christopher Steele’s dossier from public view, but Special Counsel John Durham is now making clear he has a strong interest in her campaign’s behavior during the Russia collusion probe. He is even suggesting some of her aides could be summoned as trial witnesses.

Durham’s earth-shaking revelation came inside a routine court filing this month in the case of Igor Y. Danchenko, a Russian analyst who was a primary source in 2016 for Steele’s now-infamous dossier. Danchenko has been charged with repeatedly lying to the FBI during the Russia collusion probe and has pleaded innocent.

Commentary: New Twists in Durham Probe Reveal FBI Danchenko Recordings and Suspicions of Fiona Hill Lies

November 11, 2021 RealClearWire

The indictment of Igor Danchenko, the “primary sub-source” of Christopher Steele’s infamous dossier, reveals that the FBI electronically recorded several previously undisclosed interviews with the Brookings Institution researcher. Separately, it raises suspicions, according to congressional sources, that his Brookings superior Fiona Hill may have committed perjury when testifying about Steele during President Trump’s first impeachment.

The existence of electronic records of Danchenko speaking to the FBI far more extensively than previously known creates the possibility that much more will come out about the origins of the Steele dossier and the way the opposition research was weaponized. And those under scrutiny in Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation of the origins of the Trump-Russia affair will have to wonder whether information to which they previously attested jibes with the Danchenko recordings.

Commentary: Christopher Steele Is a Product of Corrupt FBI

October 20, 2021October 19, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

Just as the special counsel’s investigation into the origins of Crossfire Hurricane—the FBI counterintelligence probe launched in the summer of 2016 to sabotage Donald Trump’s presidential campaign—is showing signs of life, one of the central figures in the hoax is attempting to burnish his sullied image.

ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos has produced a documentary featuring Christopher Steele, the man responsible for the so-called dossier bearing his name. “Out of the Shadows: The Man Behind the Steele Dossier,” streamed on Hulu Monday night; promotional clips hinted that, far from a hard-hitting interview exposing Steele for the charlatan he is, Stephanopoulos gave Steele a chance to spin his story ahead of possible new indictments related to John Durham’s inquiry into the Trump-Russia election collusion hoax.

Investigation: Biden Security Adviser Jake Sullivan Tied to Alleged 2016 Clinton Scheme to Co-Opt the CIA and FBI to Tar Trump

September 28, 2021September 27, 2021 RealClearWire

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan figures prominently in a grand jury investigation run by Special Counsel John Durham into an alleged 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign scheme to use both the FBI and CIA to tar Donald Trump as a colluder with Russia, according to people familiar with the criminal probe, which they say has broadened into a conspiracy case.

Sullivan is facing scrutiny, sources say, over potentially false statements he made about his involvement in the effort, which continued after the election and into 2017. As a senior foreign policy adviser to Clinton, Sullivan spearheaded what was known inside her campaign as a “confidential project” to link Trump to the Kremlin through dubious email-server records provided to the agencies, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Commentary: The New York Times Reveals FBI Role in January 6

September 28, 2021September 27, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

The New York Times often acts as the spin cycle for the Democrats’ dirty laundry. For years, Times reporters have helped get ahead of damning news, especially when it’s related to the Russian collusion hoax, in an attempt to establish the narrative early.

A recent example is the Times article downplaying the pending indictment against Michael Sussman, the Clinton campaign lawyer who acted in cahoots with the FBI to seed the collusion tale before the 2016 election. The article was published the day before Sussman pleaded not guilty of lying to the FBI.

Twenty Days of Infamy: The January 2017 Red Flags the FBI Blew Past on Russia Collusion

February 19, 2021February 18, 2021 Minnesota Sun Staff

From its earliest moments, the FBI’s Russia collusion probe was always fraught with warning signs.

Agents were told Christopher Steele provided faulty information, had likely been compromised by Russian intel disinformation, wanted to defeat Donald Trump, had leaked to the media and was being paid by Hillary Clinton, who herself might be carrying out an epic dirty political trick to vilify Trump with false information to distract from her own scandals.

John Durham Sought Christopher Steele’s Notes from a Meeting with The FBI in Which an Agent Said the Ex-Spy ‘Wasn’t Truthful’

December 14, 2020December 13, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

John Durham, the U.S. attorney investigating aspects of the Trump-Russia probe, has sought notes that former British spy Christopher Steele took during his interviews in 2016 with the FBI regarding a since-debunked dossier he penned that accused the Trump campaign of colluding with the Russian government.

An FBI agent who took part in one of the interviews with Steele told Justice Department investigators that the ex-spy “clearly … wasn’t truthful” regarding his contacts with members of the media.

Trump Working on Declassification of Intel Documents From Hospital, Chief of Staff Says

October 6, 2020October 5, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

President Donald Trump is working to declassify documents related to the Russia investigation while he recovers from coronavirus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, his chief of staff said Monday.

“This morning we’ve already had a couple of discussions on items that he wants to get done,” Mark Meadows, the chief of staff, said in an interview on “Fox & Friends.”

FBI Investigated Steele Dossier Source as a Possible Russian Spy Years Before Trump Probe

September 26, 2020September 25, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

The FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation on the primary source for dossier author Christopher Steele, and considered obtaining a warrant to wiretap him in 2010, according to a document released Thursday.

The FBI was also aware of the information about the source, identified elsewhere as Igor Danchenko, by December 2016, according to the document.

Sen. Ron Johnson Subpoenas FBI Director Christopher Wray for All Crossfire Hurricane Documents

August 11, 2020August 10, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, subpoenaed FBI Director Christopher Wray last week for all documents related to Crossfire Hurricane, the investigation of the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia.

The subpoena, issued on Aug. 6, calls for Wray to produce all of the documents related to the probe by Aug. 20.

Johnson is also demanding that Wray hand over all records that the FBI provided the Justice Department’s office of the inspector general for its scathing report on Crossfire Hurricane.

Senator Lindsey Graham Teases: The FBI ‘Lied Their Ass Off’ to Congress About the Steele Dossier

July 27, 2020July 26, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday teased the release of evidence showing that the FBI “lied their ass off” to Congress regarding the reliability of the Steele dossier, which the bureau used as part of its investigation of the Trump campaign.

“I will tell you next week what I found,” the South Carolina Republican said in an interview on “Fox Sunday Futures” with Maria Bartiromo.

FBI Refuses to Disclose Records on Source Who Undermined Steele Dossier

June 27, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

The FBI is refusing to release documents related to the primary source for dossier author Christopher Steele, saying in response to a public records request that the information is classified and risks identifying a confidential FBI source.

The source, whose identity remains a mystery, holds key information that could shed light on apparent inaccuracies in Steele’s dossier, which the FBI cited extensively in applications for surveillance orders against Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

FBI Offered to Pay Christopher Steele ‘Significantly’ to Dig up Dirt on Michael Flynn

May 22, 2020May 21, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

An FBI offer to pay former British spy Christopher Steele to collect intelligence on Michael Flynn in the weeks before the 2016 election has been one of the more overlooked revelations in a Justice Department inspector general’s report released in December.

The reference to the FBI proposal, which was made in an Oct. 3, 2016, meeting in an unidentified European city, has received virtually no press attention. But it might have new significance following the recent release of government documents that show that Steele peddled an unfounded rumor that Flynn had an extramarital affair with a Russian woman in the United Kingdom.

Newspaper Giant McClatchy ‘Taking a Close Look’ at Its Cohen-Prague Reports in Wake of New Evidence

April 20, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

McClatchy news service says it is reviewing two reports published in 2018 that claimed to validate a key part of the infamous Steele dossier after declassified information showed that Russian operatives may have fed disinformation to dossier author Christopher Steele.

“We are taking a close look at this new information and will update or correct our story based on its merits. Until then, we continue to stand by our reporting,” McClatchy said in a statement to The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple.

Christopher Steele Refuses to Cooperate with US Prosecutor Looking Into Origins of Trump-Russia Probe

March 9, 2020March 8, 2020 Minnesota Sun Staff

by Chuck Ross Dossier author Christopher Steele will not cooperate with U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, telling an audience at Oxford University that he believes U.S. investigators have acted in “bad faith.” Steele, a former British spy, said at the Oxford event…

Commentary: The FBI Did Not Interview Sources of the Fake Steele Dossier After FISA Warrant Was Renewed

December 11, 2019December 10, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

The FBI did not begin the process of validating information from former British spy Christopher Steele that was used as the basis for false Justice Department and intelligence agency allegations that President Donald Trump and his campaign were Russian agents until Jan. 2017 when it began interviewing Steele’s sources, months after spying warrants had already been obtained on the campaign and renewed after the election.

What to Expect in the Justice Department’s FISA Report

December 8, 2019December 8, 2019 Admin

The Justice Department’s watchdog will release a much-anticipated report Monday scrutinizing the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign in 2016.

Republicans have eagerly awaited the report, believing it will reveal that the FBI abused the foreign surveillance court process in order to spy on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Democrats hope the report will show that the FBI had a sound basis to investigate the Trump campaign.

Report: British Intelligence Questioned Christopher Steele’s Judgment In Assessment Given To FBI

October 21, 2019October 20, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

British intelligence told the FBI that dossier author Christopher Steele sometimes showed questionable judgment regarding investigative targets, according to a report that could preview some of the findings in a highly anticipated Justice Department watchdog report of FBI surveillance against the Trump campaign.

Commentary: Did Christopher Steele, Fusion GPS, the Clinton Campaign, and the DNC Make Up the Russia Collusion Hoax?

May 14, 2019May 13, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

by Robert Romano “This is probably done in conjunction with Fusion GPS that was making this stuff up, they conveniently were able to get this into the FBI, willing takers at the FBI, and this was all to dirty up the Trump campaign. I mean, I have to say,…

Analysis: The Steele Dossier and the ‘Raw Intelligence’ Canard

May 13, 2019May 12, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

by Chuck Ross Defenders of the FBI’s activities during the 2016 campaign have adopted a familiar refrain over the past 28 months to describe the Steele dossier, that infamous document that served as a road map for the conspiracy theory that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government.…

Commentary: The Russia Collusion Hoax Lays Bare the Urgent Need for FISA Reform

April 23, 2019April 22, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

by Robert Romano By far the biggest takeaway from the failure of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to establish that there was any coordination or conspiracy with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election by President Donald Trump, his campaign or any American is that we need immediate and swift reform of…

Commentary: The Tables Turn in Russian Collusion Hunt

April 2, 2019April 1, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

by Victor Davis Hanson The irony of the entire Russian collusion hoax is that accusers who cried the loudest about leaking, collusion, lying, and obstruction are themselves soon very likely to be accused of just those crimes. Now that Robert Mueller’s 674-day, $30 million investigation is over and has…

New Details Emerge of the Path the Steele Dossier Took through Media and the Government

March 19, 2019March 18, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

by Chuck Ross Court documents released last week in a lawsuit involving the Steele dossier revealed new details about the campaign to disseminate the infamous anti-Trump report to the press and within the U.S. government. Much was already known about Fusion GPS and dossier author Christopher Steele’s efforts to…

Christopher Steele’s Deposition Shows How Little Research He Did on Dossier Target

March 17, 2019March 16, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

by Chuck Ross Christopher Steele acknowledged in a July 2018 court deposition that he relied on a “random” article posted to a CNN website as part of his research for his infamous dossier. In the July 13, 2018, deposition, Steele was asked about the research he did into Aleksej…

Dark Money Org Gave $2 Million To Group Working with Fusion GPS, Steele

March 12, 2019March 12, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

by Chuck Ross A dark money group with links to several high-profile liberal activists contributed $2 million to The Democracy Integrity Project, an organization founded by a former Dianne Feinstein staffer that has contracted with Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele to investigate President Donald Trump. Fund for a Better…

DNC Refused to Comply With Dossier-Related Subpoena, so BuzzFeed Sued

February 14, 2019February 13, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

by Chuck Ross BuzzFeed News sued the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Tuesday to force the release of information that the news outlet hopes will help it defend against a lawsuit related to the Steele dossier. BuzzFeed is seeking digital information that could shed light on the cyber attacks against…

Bruce Ohr Testimony Undercuts Adam Schiff’s Defense of FBI

January 18, 2019January 17, 2019 Minnesota Sun Staff

by Chuck Ross Justice Department official Bruce Ohr’s testimony about his meetings with FBI officials regarding dossier author Christopher Steele severely undercuts claims made in 2018 by California Rep. Adam Schiff and his fellow Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee. Ohr told lawmakers Aug. 28, 2018, he briefed top…

Victor Davis Hanson Commentary: Defeat and the Dossier Explain Everything

December 11, 2018December 11, 2018 Admin

by Victor Davis Hanson Donald Trump’s former consiglieri Michael Cohen, along with being charged with tax avoidance and improper business deals, allegedly is guilty also of trying to leverage money and attention by exaggerating his influence with candidate and later President Trump. In other words, Cohen to spec followed…

Trump Dossier Research Chief Glenn Simpson Declines US Congress Interview Request

September 30, 2018September 29, 2018 Admin

Reuters The Republican chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Friday subpoenaed a U.S. research firm founder to give a deposition on his hiring of a former British spy to compile a dossier on alleged links between U.S. President Donald Trump’s associates and Russia. Representative Bob Goodlatte, a…

Just Released: Here’s What The FBI Is Hiding About Christopher Steele

August 4, 2018August 3, 2018 Tennessee Star Staff

by Joe Simonson The FBI released its internal records on Christopher Steele, the former British spy behind the controversial “Russia dossier.” One problem: Nearly every page has been redacted. The total records, made public Friday, span 71 pages and contains various documents showing payments to Steele, who is referred…