Interesting that his is where we have progressed. The dossier started out being described as “salacious” and “discredited”, even “debunked.”
At least now some Trumpists have come to the point where they know their hope lies in the parts of the dossier that implicate Trump in collusion, because large swaths of it have been corroborated.
Here’s what the dossier said about some of that, particularly with regard to Trump’s associates:
The Russian regime had been behind the recent leak of embarrassing email messages, emanating from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), to the Wikileaks platform. The reason for using Wikileaks was “plausible deniability” and the operation had been conducted with the full knowledge and support of Trump and senior members of his campaign team.
Here is what the Mueller indictment says about the Russian operatives.
Starting in at least March 2016, the Conspirators used a variety of means to hack the email accounts of volunteers and employees of the U.S. presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton (the “Clinton Campaign”), including the email account of the Clinton Campaign’s chairman.
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By in or around April 2016, the Conspirators also hacked into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (“DCCC”) and the Democratic National Committee (“DNC”). The Conspirators covertly monitored the computers of dozens of DCCC and DNC employees, implanted hundreds of files containing malicious computer code (“malware”), and stole emails and other documents from the DCCC and DNC.
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By in or around April 2016, the Conspirators began to plan the release of materials stolen from the Clinton Campaign, DCCC, and DNC.
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Beginning in or around June 2016, the Conspirators staged and released tens of thousands of the stolen emails and documents. They did so using fictitious online personas, including “DCLeaks” and “Guccifer 2.0.”
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The Conspirators also used the Guccifer 2.0 persona to release additional stolen documents through a website maintained by an organization ([Wikileaks]), that had previously posted documents stolen from U.S. persons, entities, and the U.S. government. The Conspirators continued their U.S. election-interference operations through in or around November 2016.
The Mueller indictment also says:
On or about August 15, 2016, the Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, wrote to a person who was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump, “thank u for writing back … do you find anyt[h]ing interesting in the docs I posted?” On or about August 17, 2016, the Conspirators added, “please tell me if I can help u anyhow … it would be a great pleasure to me.” On or about September 9, 2016, the Conspirators, again posing as Guccifer 2.0 referred to a stolen DCCC document posted online and asked the person, “what do u think of the info on the turnout model for the democrats entire presidential campaign.” The person responded, “[p]retty standard.”
Roger Stone admitted to being in contact with Cuccifer2.0
Turning to another direction, let’s look at the draft statement of offense that Jerome Corsi made public.
CORSI said that in the summer of 2016 an associate ([Roger Stone]) who CORSI understood to be in regular contact with senior members of the Trump Campaign, including with then-candidate Donald J. Trump, asked CORSI to get in touch with [Wikileaks] about materials it possessed relevant to the presidential campaign that had not already been released.
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[A]fter [Stone] asked CORSI to get in touch with [Wikileaks], CORSI did not decline the request as he stated in the interview. Instead, CORSI contacted an individual who resided in London, England (“overseas individual”) to pass on [Stone’s] request to learn about materials in [Wikileaks’] possession that could be relevant to the presidential campaign. CORSI thereafter told [Stone] that [Wikileaks] possessed information that would be damaging to then-candidate Hillary Clinton and that [Wikileaks] planned to release damaging information in October 2016.
a. On or about July 25, 2016, [Stone] sent an email to CORSI with the subject line, “Get to [Wikileaks founder Julian Assange].” The body of the message read: “Get to [Assange] [a]t Ecuadorian Embassy in London and get the pending [Wikileaks] emails … they deal with [the Clinton Foundation], allegedly.” On or about the same day, CORSI forwarded [Stone’s] email to the overseas individual.
b. On or about July 31, 2016, [Stone] emailed CORSI with the subject line, “Call me MON.” The body of the email read in part that the overseas individual should see [Assange].”
c. On or about August 2, 2016, CORSI responded to [Stone] by email. CORSI wrote that he was currently in Europe and planned to return in mid-August. CORSI stated: “Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging …. Time to let more than [Clinton Campaign chairman John Podesta] be exposed as in bed w enemy if they are not ready to drop HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton.] That appears to be the game hackers are now about. Would not hurt to start suggesting HRC old, memory bad, has stroke – neither he nor she well. I expect that much of next dump focus, setting stage for Foundation debacle.”
The statement of offense uses quotations from communications between Corsi and Stone. Now, that does not directly tie Trump, but the direction that Trumpists seem to be taking with this, that of Steele making up disinformation and mixing it in with the truth in order to “get” Donald Trump would have us believe that Steele somehow also convinced Corsi and Stone to type these communications to each other or that Corsi and Stone actually communicated in this manner.
Furthermore, the communication from Goldstone setting up the Trump Tower meeting is pretty straightforward in its desires:
The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with [Aras Agalarov, an Azerbaijani-Russian billionaire property-developer] this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.
This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump – helped along by Aras and Emin [Agalarov].
Trump, Jr said if it was as described, “he loved it.”
Every added element of the dossier that gets proven is another nail in the coffin. Trumpists are running out of things to point out that are not yet proven.
Nothing has been disproven.
For an intelligence report, that is a remarkable level of veracity.
I understand why Trumpists will focus on the parts that have not been specifically proven, and will jump on conspiracy theories that are complex and support the notion that parts of the dossier are made up, because that’s the only thing they have left.
The universe of items in the dossier that will be useful in this tactic grows smaller every day, as more elements of the dossier are validated in public court filings, Roger Stone’s public statements, and even the draft statement of offense released by Corsi.
There is a reason I asked the question I asked.
Because I was pretty sure it would go unanswered. And it did.
Time will tell of course, but the conspiracy theories around Steele making up a bunch of stuff and sprinkling it with elements truth to impart verisimilitude will not stand the test of time. And by test of time, I’m talking months, not years.
I answered your question, and I believe my answer also explains why my question went unanswered, and will continue to go unanswered.
