Mother Jones concluded that Steele was a “credible source with a proven record of providing reliable, sensitive and important information to the US government” who had presented the FBI with “troubling” evidence of Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia.
At the time that Mother Jones and the rest of the media were relying on Steele’s credibility, it had yet to be revealed that he was, in effect, being paid by the Clinton campaign. So it was that a willing and enthusiastic corporate media relied on Steele’s work product to spread the Trump-Russia collusion smear without raising any question regarding its author’s possible bias or self-interest.
In its assessment of Steele’s purported credibility and reliability, the OIG did fault the FBI for failing to verify the Steele Dossier’s unsubstantiated allegations that formed the basis of the Carter Page FISA applications.
In this regard, the OIG found that Steele himself was not the originating source in any of his reporting. Instead, he had relied on a “Primary Sub-Source” for information and this Primary Sub-Source used a network of sub-sources to gather information that was relayed to Steele. Moreover, the FBI accepted and used Steele’s reporting even though he never disclosed the identity of his Primary Sub-Source.
Only after placing Carter Page under electronic surveillance did the FBI tardily identify and interview Steele’s Primary-Sub-Source. As you will see below, this individual is one Igor Danchenko who has been indicted for making false statements to the FBI.
The OIG found that, shortly after the FBI filed the first Carter Page FISA renewal, it conducted a series of interviews of Danchenko that “raised significant questions about the reliability of the Steele election reporting.” In a January 2017 interview, Danchenko told the FBI that he had not seen Steele’s reports until they became public and that Steele had “misstated or exaggerated [Danchenko’s] statements in multiple sections of the reporting. For example, [Danchenko] told the FBI that, while [Steele’s] Report 80 stated that Trump’s alleged sexual activities at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Moscow had been ‘confirmed’ by a senior, western staff member at the hotel, [Danchenko] explained that he reported to Steele that Trump’s alleged unorthodox sexual activity at the Ritz Carlton hotel was ‘rumor and speculation’ and that he had not been able to confirm the story.” (Emphasis added)
According to the OIG, Danchenko also advised the FBI that he “never expected” Steele to put Danchenko’s “statements in reports or present them as facts.” Danchenko said that he “made it clear to Steele that he had no proof to support the statements from his sub-sources and that ‘it was just talk.’”
Danchenko added that his information came from “word of mouth and hearsay” and conversation that he had with “friends over beers.” As for the allegations of Trump’s bizarre sexual activities, they were statements he heard made in “jest.” (Emphasis added)
Despite Danchenko’s devastating revelations, the FBI did not correct the record with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court or amend its FISA applications. Nevertheless, the OIG concluded that the FBI had not acted with political bias.
spectator.org