Reuters: Jeb Bush hired Christopher Steele to find dirt on Trump, according to the BBC. Steele wrote the Trump Dossier.
— John Stoehr (@johnastoehr) January 12, 2017
Not only weirder than we imagine, but weirder than we can imagine…
… Steele was initially hired by FusionGPS, a Washington-based political research firm, to investigate Trump on behalf of unidentified Republicans who wanted to stop Trump’s bid for the party’s nomination. The BBC said on Wednesday, “He (Steele) was compiling this report on behalf of initially Trump’s opponent Jeb Bush,” referring to one of Trump’s 16 opponents in the 2016 Republican primary.
The BBC subsequently said on Thursday that its correspondent misspoke…
And JEB! decided to drop the issue because… the confidence that it would leak without his interference? A familial unwillingness to draw attention to The Craft? The old-WASP distaste for open talk about ‘bedroom matters’?
… Steele was kept on assignment by FusionGPS after Trump won the nomination and his information was circulated to Democratic Party figures and members of the media…
Who no doubt assumed, correctly, that if any Democrat brought it up, the Very Serious Media Villagers would’ve been calling for the whole party to be banned from the ballot.
Steele’s dealings with the FBI on Trump, initially with the senior agent who had started the FIFA probe and then moved to a post in Europe, began in July. However, Steele cut off contact with the FBI about a month before the Nov. 8 election because he was frustrated by the bureau’s slow progress.
The FBI opened preliminary investigations into Trump and his entourage’s dealings with Russians that were based in part on Steele’s reports, according to people familiar with the inquiries.
However, they said the bureau shifted into low gear in the weeks before the election to avoid interfering in the vote…
Unless such interference could kneecap the Hell-Beast Hillary, of course.
Ah, well, hope springs eternal…
House Intel Committee voted to allow ALL House members access to classified hacking report, briefing by CIA, FBI, DNI, NSA chiefs on Friday
— Deirdre Walsh (@deirdrewalshcnn) January 11, 2017
This is big. Dramatically increases the number of people who can leak classified details from the report. https://t.co/SfZLJDD4nn
— Eric Geller (@ericgeller) January 11, 2017
Late Night Bad-Craziness-in-the-Hall-of-Mirrors Open ThreadPost + Comments (26)