The Duran reported back in October that one Trump hating Republican was a driving force behind the fake Trump dossier…that RINO, Anti-Trumper was and is Senator John McCain.
It has since been confirmed that McCain did deliver the infamous Trump Dossier to the FBI.
John McCain has never hidden his hatred for Donald Trump, going to outrageous lengths to derail Trump’s presidency.
It seems that the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign took over in April 2016 from a previous unnamed Republican the funding of the ‘research’ which resulted in the Trump Dossier (the Washington rumour mill says this Republican was Senator McCain).
According to The Duran’s Alexander Mercouris, it certainly look like the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign circulated the Trump Dossier to their friends in the media and in the US intelligence community, triggering the start of the FBI investigation in July 2016 and the decision in August 2016 by the CIA to report its contents to President Obama. It was those two actions taken together which were the starting point of the Russiagate scandal.
It appears that the US Congress is starting to catch on to McCain’s treasonous antics to sabotage Trump’s presidency, and flame the war fires against Russia. Via Zerohedge…
Several months ago it emerged that the Republican sponsor behind the Fusion GPS Trump project was hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, a fact which surprised many who expected that John McCain would be the GOP mastermind looking for dirt in Trump’s past. However, a new and credible McCain trail has emerged in the annals of the “Trump Dossier” after the Washington Examiner reported that the House Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena to an associate of John McCain over his connection with the salacious dossier containing unverified allegations about Trump and his ties to Russia, which many speculate served as the illegitimate basis for FISA warrants against the Trump campaign – permitting the NSA to listen in on Trump’s phone calls – and which the president yesterday slammed as “bogus” and a “crooked Hillary pile of garbage.”
In the latest twist, committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) wants to talk to David Kramer, a former State Department official and current senior fellow at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University, about his visit to London in November 2016. During his trip, at McCain’s request Kramer met with the dossier’s author, former British spy Christopher Steele, to view “the pre-election memoranda on a confidential basis,” according to court filings and to receive a briefing and a copy of the Trump dossier. Kramer then returned to the U.S. to give the document to McCain. McCain then took a copy of the dossier to the FBI’s then-director, James Comey. But the FBI already had the document; Steele himself gave the dossier to the bureau in installments, reportedly beginning in early July 2016.
While McCain, recovering in Arizona from treatments for cancer, has long refused to detail his actions regarding the dossier, his associate Kramer was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee on Dec. 19. The new subpoena stems from statements Kramer made in that interview. In the session, the Washington Examiner reports, Kramer told House investigators that he knew the identities of the Russian sources for the allegations in Steele’s dossier. But when investigators pressed Kramer to reveal those names, he declined to do so.
Now, he is under subpoena which was issued Wednesday afternoon, and directs Kramer to appear again before House investigators on Jan. 11.
As the ongoing government probe slowly turns away from Trump’s “collusion” with the Russians and toward the FBI “insurance policy” to allegedly prevent Trump from becoming president by fabricating a narrative of Russian cooperation with the Trump, knowing Steele’s sources will be a critical part of the congressional dossier investigation:
“If one argues the document is unverified and never will be, it is critical to learn the identity of the sources to support that conclusion. If one argues the document is the whole truth, or largely true, knowing sources is equally critical.”
According to Zerohedge, there is another reason to know Steele’s sources, and that is to learn not just the origin of the dossier but its place in the larger Trump-Russia affair.
As the WashEx adds, there is a belief among some congressional investigators that the Russians who provided information to Steele were using Steele to disrupt the American election as much as the Russians who distributed hacked Democratic Party emails. In some investigators’ views, they are the two sides of the Trump-Russia project, both aimed at sowing chaos and discord in the American political system.
Still, investigators who favor this theory ask a sensible question: “It is likely that all the Russians involved in the attempt to influence the 2016 election were lying, scheing, Kremlin-linked, Putin-backed enemies of America – except the Russians who talked to Christopher Steele?”
On the other hand, the theory is still just a theory, for now… and as the Examiner’s Byron York correctly points out, to validate -or refute – it House investigators will seek Steele’s sources – and is why they will try to compel Kramer to talk.
Trump secures major victory as Senate Republicans pass $1.5 trillion tax cut bill despite Democrats warning they’ll ‘rue this day’ and protesters screaming ‘don’t kill us’ – paving the way for a final House vote today after earlier hiccup
The Senate passed a $1.5 trillion tax cut early in the early hours of Wednesday
Vote was along strict party lines. Only GOP Sen. John McCain was absent
The House earlier passed the tax cut by a vote of 227-203 but two provisions fell foul of parliamentary test meaning they have to vote again on Wednesday
President Donald Trump fired off a pair of tweets in the morning
Mike Pence described it as a ‘historic win for the American people’
The Senate passed the GOP’s $1.5 trillion tax cut early Wednesday morning, leaving just one technical hurdle and President Trump’s signature as the final steps before the president’s top legislative priority becomes reality.
There was little last-minute drama in the Senate where the final tally was 51-48 – hardly different from the original version that cleared the Senate earlier this month.
Not a single Democrat voted for it, just as none in the House voted for a similar bill earlier on Tuesday.
Moments after the measure passed, Trump was quick to voice his approval and said if the House succeeds in a final re-vote Wednesday morning, there will be a White House news conference at 1:00 p.m.
‘The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill,’ he tweeted just after 1:00 in the morning. ‘Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare)Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote.’
House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted: ‘Great news. The Senate just passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. After years of work, we are going to enact the most sweeping, pro-growth overhaul of our tax code in a generation.’
A wave of protesters provided one of the biggest bursts of emotion. One small group yelled out ‘Kill the bill, don’t kill us!’ as the final vote was being taken.
‘The Sergeant at Arms will restore order in the gallery,’ said Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the chamber.
Pence’s appearance was a flourish that put him in the spotlight – though party leaders knew in advance his potential tie-breaking vote was not needed.
One protester yelled at GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, ‘Have you no shame?’
Flake voted for the bill, weeks after warning colleagues against complicity with Trump.
If we can’t sell this to the American people I think we ought to go into another line of work
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
Moments after the decision, far-left Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted: ‘Senate Republicans just passed their tax reform bill. What an utter disgrace.’
Before the vote, as the debate stretched toward midnight, Pence tweeted out a photo of himself huddling with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Trump economic advisor Gary Cohn.
The House still had to sort through one legislative hiccup – after Democrats raised a procedural objection to minor provisions in the bill that the Senate parliamentarian ruled were not allowable.
The parliamentary ruling, which was sustained after Republicans failed to strike it down, requires the House to re-vote Wednesday morning so that the House and Senate versions are identical and President Trump can sign it.
‘After eight straight years of slow growth and under-performance, America is ready to take off,’ said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky at a press conference after passage.
Asked about a need to ‘sell’ the bill, McConnell said: ‘If we can’t sell this to the American people I think we ought to go into another line of work.’
Ryan made the rounds on Wednesday morning’s TV shows, saying on CBS that Democratic detractors predicting tax increases for the middle class are dead wrong.
‘When people see their paychecks getting bigger in February because withholding tables have adjusted to reflect their tax cuts, when businesses are keeping more of what they earn, when they can write off their expensing and investment in their businesses, and hire more people, that’s going to change its popularity. I am convinced,’ he said.
‘So I think there’s just tons of confusion out there as to what this does or doesn’t do. A lot of people think it’s going to raise their taxes, when every income tax group on average gets a tax cut. So the proof is in the pudding, and I think the results will speak for themselves.’
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, the top Democrat in the upper chamber of Congress, ripped the measure as as ‘sloppy’ and ‘as partisan as the process used to draft it.’
He warned his colleagues: ‘Vote no. Otherwise, I believe the entire Republican Party, and each of you, will come to rue this day.’
Schumer called for order during his floor speech and barked at colleagues who were talking rather than listening.
‘This is serious stuff. We believe you’re messing up America. You could pay attention for a couple of minutes,’ the New York Democrat grumbled.
Another Democrat, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, said Wednesday morning on CNN that while ‘a few people are going to get some crumbs’ in the form of tax relief, ‘the wealthiest people in the country are going to get all of the benefits here.’
‘It is going to be a great Christmas for the big corporations who are sitting on more cash than they’ve ever had in their lives,’ he groused.
Wavering senators removed most of the drama Tuesday night by announcing their support in advance. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who Trump mocked as ‘little Bob’ during an earlier feud, flipped from opposing the earlier version to supporting the final conference report that cleared the Senate Tuesday night.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine also tipped her hand hours before the vote, saying she would back the bill.
Sen. John McCain, who provided a dramatic thumbs-down to the GOP’s Obamacare repeal bill months ago, is recovering at home from his treatment for brain cancer and didn’t vote Tuesday night.
He had announced his backing for an earlier version of the tax cut.
The hours-long debate Tuesday was mostly kabuki theater.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch bemoaned the lack of Democratic support – although leaders decided to move the bill through procedures that allowed them to circumvent Democrats and pass it by a simple majority vote.
‘Where is this bipartisanship that this country desperately needs?’ asked Hatch. ‘Our tax policy is for the birds,’ he added.
Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon called the final bill an ‘abomination’ as well as ‘the biggest bank heist – not just in American history but in the history of the world.’
As the hours drew on, senators continued to inveigh one way or the other to a mostly empty chamber but with an eye toward C-Span and cable audiences.
‘Not a single Democrat would break from party discipline,’ complained Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. ‘Why? Because they are so united in their rage at President Trump,’ the president’s former primary rival said.
He said families would see benefits in their pay stubs within weeks.
Democrats saw their hopes dashed of scoring another dramatic defeat of a GOP initiative, after seeing the Obamacare repeal tank earlier this year.
With passage all but assured, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the leading Democrat on the Finance Committee, turned his focus to future battles, warning Americans that Republicans would be ‘coming for your Social Security and Medicare before you take you Christmas tree down.’
Now, all that is left for the House to do is vote again following an earlier technical parliamentary error.
Speaker Ryan, who earlier said ‘this is a day I’ve been looking forward to for a long time’, will get to relive his dream Wednesday, because a few minor provisions in the House bill were out of order.
That would require another procedural motion to ensure both chambers are passing identical measures.
In that case, the House would meet at 9am Wednesday and then vote.
The rule prevents certain types of legislating in what is nominally a revenue bill – crammed into a special procedure that only requires a simple majority to pass to avoid having to negotiate with Democrats.
There are a ‘couple little glitches,’ Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News Tuesday night, but they are only ‘minor adjustments.’
One of the out-of-order provisions lets people save in tax-deferred 529 plans to home school their kids, Politico reported. Another may deal with a college’s exemption from an endowment tax.
It is up to Democrats or any senator to raise an objection to force a ruling.
A Senate leadership aide downplayed the hiccup in the final stretch.
‘No one’s fault. They’re tiny provisions that don’t affect the overall bill. These small provisions were all that Dems could find. The House will pass again,’ the aide said.
An amendment by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz made it into the final conference report, allowing parents to withdraw up to $10,000 from tax-deferred 529 college savings plans for home schooling their kids at a younger age.
The plans could now be used for K-12 elementary and secondary tuition, including for home-schooling.
Aides were still scrambling to figure out how the technical ruling would affect the legislation.
Cruz touted the amendment on his Senate and campaign web site.
‘By expanding choice for parents and opportunities for children, we have prioritized the education of the next generation of Americans,’ Cruz said on the Senate floor when the amendment passed on a tie vote with an assist from Vice President Mike Pence.
A Senate GOP aide told DailyMail.com the only portion likely to be knocked out involved home schooling – not the bulk of the amendment for the first time making 529s eligible for K-12 schools including private or parochial schools.
In states that define home-schooling as a type of private school, it is possible that funding could still be eligible.
In another blow, of the PR variety, Senate Democrats objected to the pleasing name Republicans attached to the bill, the so-called short title, the ‘The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act.’
WHAT’S IN THE FINAL TAX BILL?
Top income tax bracket has dropped to 37 per cent from 39.6 per cent
Other brackets are zero, 12, 22, 24, 32 and 35 per cent
‘Standard’ deduction for non-itemizers nearly doubles
Interest is deductible only on the first $750,000 of new home mortgages
Only individuals making more than $500,000 and couples earning $600,000 are in the top bracket
Corporate tax rates drop from 35 per cent to 21 per cent
Deduction for medical expenses and student loan interest and an exemption for graduate school tuition waivers
Ends Obamacare tax penalty for failing to buy health insurance
Doubles child tax credit to $2,000 for families earning up to $400,000
$1,400 of child credit is refundable even for families that don’t pay any income tax
Doubles estate tax exemption to the first $11.2 million of inheritances
Opens a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling
‘Pass-through’ corporations can deduct 20 per cent of income
Elimination of corporate Alternative Minimum Tax
No repeal of Johnson Amendment barring churches and religious organizations from election activity
Remember their names and their faces and vote these bastards out
Six establishment Senate Republicans flip-flopped on their pledge to repeal Obamacare on Wednesday.
Senate Republicans shot down Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) clean Obamacare repeal bill. Paul’s bill, the “Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act of 2017,” failed 45-55.
Seven moderate Republicans voted against the clean Obamacare repeal bill in the Senate.
Sens. Dean Heller (R-NV), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), John McCain (R-AZ), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Susan Collins (R-ME) voted against Sen. Paul’s clean Obamacare repeal bill. All of these senators except for Sen. Collins voted to rescind Obamacare in 2015.
Conservative activists previously branded Sens. Murkowski, Portman, and Capito “traitors” for betraying their promise to the American people to repeal Obamacare.
Conservative activist groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks urged Republican senators to vote for Sen. Paul’s clean Obamacare repeal bill. Ken Cuccinelli of the Senate Conservative Fund recently suggested that his group might primary faux-Republicans such as Capito, Portman, and Murkowski.
Senator Paul wrote in an exclusive op-ed for Breitbart News, “That’s a good question. I say yes, but I tell you this – it’s hard to say yes if we can’t do something as simple as keeping our word. As simple as voting today how we voted before when we were asking to be in charge. If you tell people you’re going to do something, do it. It’s just that simple. Let’s repeal Obamacare.”
After his bill failed, Sen. Paul argued, “It’s a victory for conservatives that we did get a vote for a clean repeal.”
Not only have these six senators voted to repeal Obamacare, they publicly pledged to do so on the campaign trail and in the halls of the Senate. Here are six times these senators promised to repeal Obamacare:
Lamar Alexander, “The wisest course is to repeal Obamacare and replace it step by step with solutions that lower health care costs.”
Shelley Moore Capito, “I have consistently voted to repeal and replace this disastrous health care law, and I am glad that a repeal bill will finally reach the president’s desk.”
Dean Heller,“This DC bureaucrat-driven healthcare system will only result in limited health care choices and higher costs for Nevadans.”
Lisa Murkowski, “This law is not affordable for anyone in Alaska. That is why I will support the bill that repeals the ACA and wipes out its harmful impacts. I can’t watch premiums for Alaskans shoot up by 30 percent or more each year, see businesses artificially constrained, or see the quality of public education decline.”
John McCain, “It is clear that any serious attempt to improve our health care system must begin with a full repeal and replacement of Obamacare, and I will continue fighting on behalf of the people of Arizona to achieve it.”
Rob Portman, “I’m for repealing this broken law and replacing it with something better that gives patients more choice, decreases costs and increases access to quality, affordable care.”
FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon called out the Senate’s six hypocrites. Brandon charged, “Our activists have fought for the better part of a decade, led on by campaign promises and actual votes to repeal Obamacare, to get Republican majorities in the House and Senate, as well as a Republican in the White House. Sens. Dean Heller, Lisa Murkowski, John McCain, Rob Portman, Shelley Moore Capito, and Lamar Alexander each voted for the very same bill in 2015. We now know that these six senators are Obamacare repeal frauds. Even though we’re still wondering if Sen. Susan Collins is in the right party, at least she was consistent with her vote.”
Tea Party Patriots President Jenny Beth Martin said that the seven senators who voted against the clean Obamacare bill broke the biggest political promise in history. She said:
Today, seven Republican Senators betrayed their constituents and the American people by breaking what is arguably the biggest political promise in modern American politics, and refusing to vote to repeal Obamacare. For the last four election cycles, Republican candidates have promised to repeal Barack Obama’s signature legislation and as a result, have increasingly been granted more power in Washington by the American people. Now, Republicans are completely in charge and should find it easy to keep this critical promise that lifted them to power. However, Senators Capito, Heller, McCain, Portman, Alexander, and Murkowski should be ashamed for having flip-flopped and voting against repealing Obamacare, just 18 months after they voted to send virtually the same exact legislation to President Barack Obama’s desk. And the seventh, Susan Collins, seems more concerned with critiquing the looks of House members or the sanity of the president than providing relief to the American people from rising costs and deteriorating quality of care under Obamacare. This is precisely the reason President Trump was elected. It is precisely the reason Congress has an approval rating worse than cockroaches. And it is precisely why the American people voted to drain the swamp in 2016. Tea Party Patriots will never give up the fight to fully repeal Obamacare and restore health care freedom to the American people. We call on President Trump to take action to end the congressional exemption from Obamacare so that senators, their families, and theirs staffs are forced to experience the same hardships that they refuse to lift from the American people. Perhaps if they were forced to live under the law that was unfavorably imposed on the American people, they will finally have the motivation to repeal Obamacare once and for all.
Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning issued a statement condemning the six moderate senators who voted to repeal Obamacare in 2015 but have reneged on their promise to the American people. Manning declared
It is sad to see six Republican Senators, John McCain, Shelley Moore Capito, Dean Heller, Lisa Murkowski, Rob Portman and Lamar Alexander who voted in 2015 to repeal most of Obamacare have now decided to change their votes when it actually mattered and there’s a president in the White House who wanted to sign the bill. This betrayal of their constituents’ trust threatens to leave the failed Obamacare system in place.
This is outright fraud. These senators have repeatedly lied to the American people about where they stood on one of the signature issues facing the nation.
Obamacare has failed. Premiums are higher than ever and the options on insurance marketplaces are dwindling. In the meantime, the employer mandates still create a disincentive against hiring full-time employees and Medicaid expansion is bankrupting state budgets.
Manning concluded, “The American people have become all too accustomed to politicians who say one thing and do another. The Senate Six have proven that the public’s cynicism about politicians is well-placed, for if they had just kept word, Obamacare would be history. The days ahead will prove whether the GOP majority in the Senate is able to keep their election promises. If they fail, fantasies of a 60-vote Republican Senate will be replaced by fears of a Democrat majority.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been diagnosed with brain cancer, the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix said Wednesday.
The tumor was discovered after the senior Arizona senator underwent a minor procedure last week to remove a blood clot from above his left eye.
“Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumor known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot,” the hospital said in a statement.
“The Senator and his family are reviewing further treatment options with his Mayo Clinic care team. Treatment options may include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.”
McCain’s latest diagnosis is not his first battle with cancer. He underwent a procedure in 2000 to remove a type of skin cancer called melanoma from the left side of his face.
McCain, 80, also had a melanoma removed from his left arm in 2000 and another removed from his nose in 2002. Both were determined to be the least dangerous types of melanoma.
McCain’s office said in a statement that the Arizona Republican remained in good spirits Wednesday and is confident that any treatments will be effective.
“He is in good spirits as he continues to recover at home with his family in Arizona,” his office said.
“He is grateful to the doctors and staff at Mayo Clinic for their outstanding care, and is confident that any future treatment will be effective.”
His office said further consultations with his doctors will determine when he will return to the Senate.
The news of McCain’s diagnosis prompted an immediate outpouring of support from fellow lawmakers.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) characterized McCain as a fighter, saying in a statement that “he will face this challenge with the same extraordinary courage that has characterized his life.”
“John McCain is a hero to our Conference and a hero to our country. He has never shied away from a fight and I know he will face this challenge with the same extraordinary courage that has characterized his life,” McConnell said in a statement. “The entire Senate family’s prayers are with John, Cindy and his family, his staff, and the people of Arizona he represents so well.”
Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, echoed McConnell’s characterization of McCain, and said the diagnosis was “just the latest challenge” for Arizona Republican.
McCain’s eldest daughter Meghan, a Fox News host, said in a statement that her father appeared to be the calmest family member upon receiving the diagnosis.
“It won’t surprise you to learn that in all of this, the one of us who is the most confident and calm is my father,” she said. “He is the toughest person I know.”
President Trump issued a statement shortly after news of McCain’s diagnosis broke, calling him a fighter and sending his family well wishes from the White House.
“Senator John McCain has always been a fighter,” Trump said. “[First lady] Melania and I send our thoughts and prayers to Senator McCain, Cindy, and their entire family. Get well soon.”
Former President Barack Obama, whom McCain ran against in the 2008 presidential election, called his former opponent “one of the bravest fighters” he has ever known, saying that “cancer doesn’t know what it’s up against.”
McCain was first elected to the House in 1982, and won a bid for the Senate just four years later.
Before entering Congress, McCain served in the U.S. Navy as a pilot. While fighting in the Vietnam War, he spent five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.
He needs a new set of eyes and a path to retirement.
PHOENIX (AP) — Sen. John McCain’s absence from the Senate as he recovers from surgery for a blood clot has led the GOP leadership to postpone consideration of health care legislation already on the brink.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Saturday night he was deferring action on the measure as McCain recovers at his home in Arizona. Surgeons in Phoenix removed a blood clot from above McCain’s left eye on Friday. The 80-year-old Senate veteran was advised by doctors to remain in Arizona next week, his office said.
“While John is recovering, the Senate will continue our work on legislative items and nominations, and will defer consideration of the Better Care Act,” McConnell said in a statement.
A close vote had already been predicted for the GOP health care bill, with all Democrats and independents coming out against it and some Republicans opposed or undecided. With the GOP holding a 52-48 majority, they can afford to lose only two Republicans. Vice President Mike Pence would break a tie for final passage.
Two Republicans, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine, have already said they’ll vote against the measure.
A procedural vote expected in the coming days had been cast as a showdown over the measure designed to replace President Barack Obama’s health care law, commonly called Obamacare.
McConnell and other GOP leaders have been urging senators to at least vote in favor of opening debate, which would allow senators to offer amendments. In recent days GOP leaders have expressed optimism that they were getting closer to a version that could pass the Senate.
In Phoenix, Mayo Clinic Hospital doctors said McCain underwent a “minimally invasive” procedure to remove the nearly 2-inch (5-centimeter) clot and that the surgery went “very well,” a hospital statement said. McCain was reported to be resting comfortably at his home in Arizona.
Pathology reports on the clot were expected in the next several days.
McCain is a three-time survivor of melanoma. Records of his medical exams released in 2008 when he was the GOP candidate for president showed that he has had precancerous skin lesions removed and had an early stage squamous cell carcinoma, an easily cured skin cancer, removed.
Sen. John McCain faces questions in a defamation lawsuit about leaks leading to publication of the now-infamous dossier that alleged Donald Trump’s campaign had connections to Russian operatives, McClatchy has learned.
The dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and his London firm, Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd., amounted to a collection of uncorroborated reports of collusion gathered as political research for sale to Trump’s opponents. It proved explosive when published by online news site BuzzFeed on Jan. 10.
Now, two lawsuits — one in the United States and a second in the U.K. — are being brought by lawyers for Aleksej Gubarev, a Cyprus-based Internet entrepreneur whom Steele’s Russian sources accused of cyber spying against the Democratic Party leadership.
According to a new court document in the British lawsuit, counsel for defendants Steele and Orbis repeatedly point to McCain, R-Ariz., a vocal Trump critic, and a former State Department official as two in a handful of people known to have had copies of the full document before it circulated among journalists and was published by BuzzFeed.
The court document obtained by McClatchy confirms that Sir Andrew Wood, a former British ambassador to Moscow and a Russia adviser to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, discussed the 35-page dossier with McCain.
“The Defendants considered that the issues were self-evidently relevant to the national security of the US, UK and their allies,” the document says, explaining why Steele and his partner, Christopher Burrows, felt it necessary to share the dossier’s findings.
Wood had told Britain’s The Guardian in January that McCain had reached out to him about the dossier, and had obtained it through other means. The court document confirms that Wood, Steele and former State Department official David Kramer decided together that new information gathered after the election should be shared with authorities in Britain and the United States.
A McCain spokesperson declined to comment Monday on the new court document, pointing instead to a Jan. 11 statement from the veteran senator about the dossier. “Upon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the director of the FBI,” McCain had said then. “That has been the extent of my contact with the FBI or any other government agency regarding this issue.”
In recent congressional testimony, ex-FBI Director James Comey, fired by Trump amid a widening probe, acknowledged receiving the dossier from McCain on Jan. 6. Kramer, a former State Department official who until recently served as a senior director at Arizona State University’s McCain Institute for International Leadership, declined comment.
The British court documents are legal responses in the British suit and do not reflect the entire docket. The British suit is related to a similar lawsuit in the United States against online news site BuzzFeed.
At least a dozen national media organizations had a copy of the Steele dossier before it became public but hadn’t published details because much of the information had not been corroborated.
McClatchy was among them and subsequently published numerous reports on people named in the dossier, including a Russian diplomat and a supposed hacker who apparently is an imprisoned pedophile.
The dossier, without substantiation, said Gubarev’s U.S.-based global web-hosting companies, XBT and Webzilla, planted digital bugs, transmitted viruses and conducted altering operations against the Democratic Party leadership.
While one key name in the dossier was blackened out by BuzzFeed, Gubarev’s was not. He alleges that he was never contacted for comment, suffering reputational harm in the process.
In the court document, Steele’s barrister, Nicola Cain, argued that the portion of the dossier dealing with Gubarev, which came in weeks after Trump’s election and after Steele was no longer paid by his client for research, amounted to raw intelligence and was advertised as such. She did not return a call or email requests for comment.
Val Gurvits, an attorney leading the U.S. suit against BuzzFeed, dismissed the idea that Gubarev was just caught up in raw intelligence.
“The value of this document (dossier) is only if it is published,” said Gurvits. “It is absolutely of no value to anybody unless it is published. Slander is slander when you say it to one person.”
In a recent development in the U.S. lawsuit, BuzzFeed attorneys subpoenaed the former heads of the FBI, CIA and the Directorate of National Intelligence, seeking information about the dossier. Politico reported on June 30 that the demand for documents and testimony was aimed at learning the existence and scope of any federal investigation into Steele’s dossier.
Gubarev’s attorney hopes to soon put Steele under oath, particularly about how the accusations about XBT and Webzilla came about.
“I plan to take the necessary steps to depose him as an important witness to my case,” Guvarits said, dismissing the chances of a settlement. “We have not had any serious settlement discussions in quite some time. My client certainly wants to take the case to trial. He wants his reputation back.”
The British court document also confirmed that Washington research firm Fusion GPS, co-founded by former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson, had been hired to conduct opposition research by one of Trump’s GOP primary opponents. Later, Democrats paid for the same research on Trump’s past and alleged Russian ties.
Fusion GPS contracted with Steele, who had once worked as an undercover spy in Moscow. The court document lifted a veil on Washington’s inner workings, with Steele laying out how Fusion briefed select reporters on the material for which it and Steele had been paid to gather.
“The journalists initially briefed at the end of September 2016 by the Second Defendant (Steele) and Fusion at Fusion’s instruction were from the New York Times, the Washington Post, Yahoo News, the New Yorker and CNN,” Steele’s lawyers said, adding that he “verbally and in person” briefed the first three organizations in mid-October and a reporter from Mother Jones via Skype.
These reporters were not shown the dossier, the lawyers noted, and received instead a “disclosure of limited intelligence regarding indications of Russian interference” in the campaign. The information was off the record, meaning it could be used for further research but not published nor attributed.
Simpson declined comment. Steele declined past attempts to discuss his dossier with
.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article160622854.html#storylink=cpy
