House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff tacitly admitted that wild and salacious claims made in the infamous “Steele dossier” about Donald Trump were not true, though he nevertheless went on to slam the former president anyway.
In an interview Wednesday with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, in which the two discussed the discredited document, the California Democrat nevertheless maintained that regardless of the fact-free allegations, that doesn’t change “Donald Trump’s corrupt behavior.”
“According to CNN and other major news organizations, a series of investigations and lawsuits have discredited many of the infamous so-called Trump dossier central allegations and exposed the unreliability of that so-called dossier’s sources,” said Blitzer.
“Do you worry, congressman, that your credibility, other Democrats’ credibility, could be hurt by that? And that it potentially could impact how some see this current investigation?” he asked.
“No,” Schiff responded.
“People that have been following the investigation understand the very limited role that the Steele dossier played. And also understand that while we may now know that one of his primary sources was lying to him, it doesn’t change Donald Trump’s corrupt behavior in 2016,” he said.
In fact, the FBI heavily relied on the dossier to obtain a series of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court warrants to spy on a member of Trump’s 2016 campaign, Carter Page.
“Not only do we know that the dossier was unverified, but most of the dossier was false, but they continue to spy on an American citizen and use that information as if it were credible,” then-Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in July 2019.
“It’s even worse than that, Sean. Here’s the problem: The FBI fired Christopher Steele, then continued to use him as a credible source. And now there’s had lines out there saying that Christopher Steele somehow has this verifiable dossier. Let me just tell you, that’s flat-out false,” he added.
In his interview with Blitzer, however, Schiff continued to point a finger at Trump and his family.
“It doesn’t change the fact that the president’s son was secretly meeting in Trump Tower with the Russian delegation to get dirt on Hillary Clinton or that others in Trump orbit were also seeking the gain of the Russian hack of the Democratic Party,” Schiff claimed.
“The Steele dossier is a nice talking point for kind of right-wing pundits, but it’s a distraction from what we did learn. What we did learn was very damning of the former president, of the Russians, and his campaign.”
As another point of fact, an 18-month investigation into the allegations by former special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence substantiating Schiff’s claims of a conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
That said, Blitzer pressed Schiff: “Did you ever believe those allegations in the Steele dossier?”
“Well, some of those allegations proved to be all too accurate,” Schiff said, which, if not outright false, is misleading.
In addition, the FBI never revealed to the FISA court that the dossier itself was funded by then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign, or that the dossier’s author, former British spy Christopher Steele, was staunchly anti-Trump.
Jon has over 30 years' worth of reporting experience, as well as an author and U.S. Army veteran. He has a BA in political science from Ashford University and an MA in national security studies/intelligence analysis from American Military University.
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