Why do you think that the dossier has not been inv

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Use in 2017 Special Counsel investigation

According to Senate Intelligence Committee vice chairman Mark Warner (D-VA), the dossier's allegations are being investigated by a Special Counsel led by Robert Mueller, which is also investigating allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 elections.[98] In the summer of 2017, Mueller's team of investigators met with Christopher Steele.[99]

As some leads stemming from the dossier have already been followed and confirmed by the FBI, legal experts have stated that Special Counsel investigators, headed by Robert Mueller, are obligated to follow any leads the dossier has presented them with, irrespective of what parties financed it in its various stages of development, or " hey would be derelict in their duty if they didn't."[98][100]

While Trump and some Republicans have claimed that the dossier was behind the beginning of the investigation into the Trump campaign's potential conspiracy with Russia, in December 2017, former and current intelligence officials revealed that the actual impetus was a series of comments made in May 2016 by Trump campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos during a night of "heavy drinking at an upscale London bar" made to a top Australian diplomat in Britain.

Papadopoulos revealed that he had inside information by bragging that the Kremlin had "thousands of emails" stolen from Hillary Clinton which could be used to damage her campaign. He had learned this about three weeks earlier. Two months later, when WikiLeaks started releasing DNC emails, Australian officials alerted the Americans about Papadopoulos' remarks.[101][46]

Other soon-discovered factors then played into the FBI's decision to investigate Russian interference and any role played by the Trump campaign: intelligence from friendly governments, especially the British and Dutch, and then the information about a trip to Moscow by Trump adviser Carter Page.

Steele's first report was sent to Fusion GPS, dated June 20, 2016, and FBI agents first interviewed Steele in October 2016.[46] A year later, in October 2017, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, and became a cooperating witness in Mueller's investigation.[101]


On February 3, 2018, Trump praised the Nunes memo and tweeted:

Donald J. Trump✓
v · t · e
@realDonaldTrump

This memo totally vindicates “Trump” in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!

3 Feb 2018 via Twitter[132]

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) disagreed, stating on February 4 on CBS’ Face the Nation: "I actually don't think it has any impact on the Russia probe." He went on to say:


"There is a Russia investigation without a dossier," Gowdy said. "So to the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the FISA process, the dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower. The dossier has nothing to do with an email sent by Cambridge Analytica. The dossier really has nothing to do with George Papadopoulos' meeting in Great Britain. It also doesn't have anything to do with obstruction of justice. So there's going to be a Russia probe, even without a dossier."[34]

Gowdy went on to say he was "100 percent" behind Mueller: "Look, Russia tried to interfere with our election in 2016 with or without a dossier."[133]

Glenn Kessler, a fact checker for The Washington Post, has analyzed an accusation made by Devin Nunes in a February 7, 2018, interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show: "The truth is that they [Democrats] are covering up that Hillary Clinton colluded with the Russians to get dirt on Trump to feed it to the FBI to open up an investigation into the other campaign."

Kessler's "Pinocchio Test" rating was: " here is no evidence that Clinton was involved in Steele's reports or worked with Russian entities to feed information to Steele. That's where Nunes's claim goes off the rails — and why he earns Four Pinocchios."[134] "Four Pinocchios" equals a "Whopper" (outright lie).

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