Stephen Colbert's Late Show lets the Trump dossier defend itself from attacks by Trump, Fox News

The Late Show gives voice to the Steele dossier

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Late Show)

As Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation creeps closer to the White House, President Trump and his allies have increasingly been trying to delegitimize the entire investigation into Trump and his campaign's ties to Russia. One target, especially popular on the opinion side of Fox News, is the dossier compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele in 2016. Trump has called it fake, though the FBI and Mueller reportedly take its allegations seriously, and the president and his allies have latched onto the fact that much of Steele's research was indirectly paid for by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert and his team let the Steele dossier offer a rebuttal, kind of, taking words from the dossier to needle Trump and push back on his criticism. "So what if Clinton and the Democratic Party provided funding for this report," the dossier says, in computer voice. "The data is relevant regardless of who sponsored it." It bolstered its point with an analogy about a husband caught frequenting prostitutes thanks to cameras paid for by Hillary Clinton. And yes, there's a nod to Colbert's favorite part of the dossier. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.