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Who did Steele originally give the dossier to? (Original Post) Phoenix61 Jan 2018 OP
John McCain was given it in London.... Historic NY Jan 2018 #1
Right, but I thought that happened after Steele Phoenix61 Jan 2018 #3
He did give it to the FBI and nothing happened. DURHAM D Jan 2018 #7
Wasn't the NY office of the FBI the one Proud Liberal Dem Jan 2018 #2
Yes it was Phoenix61 Jan 2018 #5
But there seemed to be little progress in a proper inquiry into Mr Trump. Historic NY Jan 2018 #6
And Republican Never-Trumpers originally gave us the dossier. L. Coyote Jan 2018 #4
This is the part the repugs conveniently leave out, that the dossier was repug-funded... brush Jan 2018 #9
Here's a timeline-ish from Wikipedia blogslut Jan 2018 #8

Historic NY

(37,449 posts)
1. John McCain was given it in London....
Thu Jan 25, 2018, 02:48 PM
Jan 2018

Simpson and Fritsch said that when they hired Steele, he did not know who would be getting the information he gathered. The two acknowledge that they assisted Steele in passing the dossier to Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain "via an emissary." McCain later gave it to FBI Director James Comey.

[link:https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/03/575259858/firm-that-contracted-steele-dossier-says-it-was-shocked-by-findings-on-trump|]

David Kramer, a former State Department employee who now serves as a senior fellow at the nonprofit McCain Institute, got it from Steele.

[link:http://www.newsweek.com/trump-russia-dossier-investigation-mccain-associate-subpoenaed-over-steele-761035|]

Phoenix61

(16,926 posts)
3. Right, but I thought that happened after Steele
Thu Jan 25, 2018, 02:52 PM
Jan 2018

gave it to his contact in the FBI and nothing happened.

DURHAM D

(32,580 posts)
7. He did give it to the FBI and nothing happened.
Thu Jan 25, 2018, 03:10 PM
Jan 2018

That is why he then passed it to McCain.

I don't remember who he gave it to first but it might have been an FBI contact in England.

Maybe he got it to Comey and nothing happened. Who knows?

Historic NY

(37,449 posts)
6. But there seemed to be little progress in a proper inquiry into Mr Trump.
Thu Jan 25, 2018, 03:10 PM
Jan 2018

However, security sources say Mr Steele became increasingly frustrated that the FBI was failing to take action on the intelligence from others as well as him.

He came to believe there was a cover-up: that a cabal within the Bureau blocked a thorough inquiry into Mr Trump, focusing instead on the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

By late July and early August, MI6 was also receiving information about Mr Trump. By September, information to the FBI began to grow in volume: Mr Steele compiled a set of his memos into one document and passed it to his contacts at the FBI.

But there seemed to be little progress in a proper inquiry into Mr Trump. The Bureau, instead, seemed to be devoting their resources in the pursuit of Hillary Clinton’s email transgressions.

The New York office, in particular, appeared to be on a crusade against Ms Clinton. Some of its agents had a long working relationship with Rudy Giuliani – by then a member of the Trump campaign – since his days as public prosecutor and then-Mayor of the city.

As the election approached, FBI director James Comey made public his bombshell letter saying that Ms Clinton would face another email investigation. Two days before that, Mr Giuliani, then a part of the Trump team, talked about “a surprise or two you’re going to hear about in the next few days”.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/03/fbi-leaks-hillary-clinton-james-comey-donald-trump

[link:https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-russia-dossier-file-investigation-hacking-christopher-steele-mi6-a7526901.html|]

L. Coyote

(51,129 posts)
4. And Republican Never-Trumpers originally gave us the dossier.
Thu Jan 25, 2018, 02:52 PM
Jan 2018

And it was passed to USG because there was reason to believe an ongoing criminal conspiracy to undermine the election was underway by Trump in collusion with Russia.

brush

(53,331 posts)
9. This is the part the repugs conveniently leave out, that the dossier was repug-funded...
Thu Jan 25, 2018, 03:18 PM
Jan 2018

originally by the Cruz campaign as oppo research against trump.

When trump got the nomination the Dems begin picked it up.

blogslut

(37,948 posts)
8. Here's a timeline-ish from Wikipedia
Thu Jan 25, 2018, 03:11 PM
Jan 2018
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump%E2%80%93Russia_dossier#History

According to Steele, he soon found "troubling information indicating connections between Trump and the Russian government. He said that according to his sources, "there was an established exchange of information between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin of mutual benefit." He described the finding as "an extraordinary situation" and concluded it was "sufficiently serious" for him to share it with the FBI, which he did in July 2016.

Steele delivered his report as a series of two- or three-page memos, starting in June 2016 and continuing through December. He continued his investigation even after the Democratic client stopped paying for it following Trump's election. After the election, Fusion GPS co-owner Simpson "reportedly spent his own money to continue the investigation".

On his own initiative, Steele decided to also pass the information to British and American intelligence services because he believed the findings were a matter of national security for both countries. According to the testimony of Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, Steele approached the FBI because he was concerned that the then candidate, Donald Trump, was being blackmailed by Russia. However, he became frustrated with the FBI, which he believed was failing to investigate his reports, choosing instead to focus on the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. According to The Independent, Steele came to believe that there was a "cabal" inside the FBI, particularly its New York field office linked to Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani, which blocked any attempts to investigate the links between Trump and Russia. In October 2016, Steele had compiled 33 pages (16 memos) and passed on what he discovered so far to a reporter from Mother Jones magazine.

In a court filing in April 2017, Steele revealed previously unreported information that in December 2016, shortly after the presidential election, he gave a copy of the 16 memos to "the senior British national security official and sent an encrypted version to Fusion GPS with instructions to deliver a hard copy to Senator McCain. McCain, who had been informed about the alleged links between Kremlin and Trump, met with former British ambassador to Moscow Sir Andrew Wood. Wood confirmed the existence of the dossier and vouched for Steele's "professionalism and integrity". McCain obtained the dossier from David J. Kramer and took it directly to FBI director James Comey on December 9, 2016. Comey has confirmed that counter-intelligence investigations are under way into possible links between Trump associates and Moscow, and CNN has reported that the FBI used the dossier to bolster its investigations."

After delivering the 16 memos, more information was received, and two more pages, the "December memo", dated "13 December 2016", was prepared. It alleged efforts by Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to pay those who had hacked the DNC and to "cover up all traces of the hacking operation". Cohen denies this.


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