Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence agent who wrote the dossier on then-candidate Donald Trump's ties to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, broke his silence in an interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos released Monday on Hulu.
Steele broadly stood by the dossier he compiled for Fusion GPS, a client of Hillary Clinton's campaign, despite the fact that many claims — including the most salacious one — have not been corroborated. "Everyone with whom the dossier was shared sent reporters out, tried to confirm the basic allegations within it," Steele critic Barry Meier told ABC News, but "no one could nail anything in it down."
Steele conceded "there are one or two things in it which have been proven wrong," but not many, and while compiling the dossier, he said, "we knew some of it was right, and we suspected some of it may never be provable."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Steele said his report stands on "four pillars," three of them focusing on the "large-scale Russian interference campaign in the American election" to harm Clinton and boost Trump, "and the fourth was, there was evidence of collusion between Trump and people around Trump and the Russians." He argued Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report backed those up.
"Frankly, George, when we went into it, we weren't expecting to find a great deal," Steele said, but when he started digging, he was "surprised and shocked" to learn "there was a potentially serious situation of 'kompromat' against a presidential candidate," raising the stakes considerably.
The most infamous piece of alleged "kompromat" — or blackmail material — Steele included in his dossier was a video said to have been taken of Trump and urinating prostitutes. The "pee tape" has never surfaced, and Trump continues to deny it exists. Steele said "I think it probably does, but I wouldn't put 100 percent certainty on it." He speculated that it was never leaked because Russian President Vladimir Putin would "make sure it never got out, unless he chose for it to get out," and "it hasn't needed to be released," largely "because I think the Russians felt they'd got pretty good value out of Donald Trump when he was president of the U.S."
Chris Burrows, Steele's partner at Orbis Business Intelligence, said he urged Steele to "please take out the pee-pee tape. The golden rule for golden showers is that you just don't talk about sex in reports." Read more at ABC News.
-
Critics’ choice: Watering holes for gourmandsFeature An endless selection of Mexican spirits, a Dublin-inspired bar, and an upscale Baltimore pub
-
Argentinian beef is at the center of American farmers’ woesThe Explainer ‘It feels like a slap in the face to rural America,’ said one farmer
-
‘Businesses that lose money and are uncompetitive won’t survive’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
What does history say about Trump’s moves in Latin America?Today's Big Question ‘Bitter memories’ surface as the US targets Venezuela
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Is the ceasefire in Gaza really working?Today's Big Question Neither Israel and Hamas has an interest in a full return to hostilities but ‘brutally simple arithmetic’ in region may scupper peace plan long-term
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
No Kings rally: What did it achieve?Feature The latest ‘No Kings’ march has become the largest protest in U.S. history
-
Push for Ukraine ceasefire collapsesFeature Talks between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin were called off after the Russian president refused to compromise on his demands
-
Trump eyes regime change in VenezuelaFeature Officials believe Trump’s ‘war on narco-terrorism’ is actually a push to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
