
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Just as the phony Dossier that kicked off the phony Russian collusion investigation was fading into the background, it is being brought back into the mainstream news – this time by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">For reasons that are not clear, Stephanopoulos conducted a one-on-one interview with Christopher Steele – a former British intelligence officer and the guy who reportedly prepared the document based on information he obtained from Russian operatives. ; Steele, who has stayed in the shadows all these years, has suddenly decided to talk about the Dossier. ; Why now? Is a good question. ; Unfortunately, Stephanopoulos never got an answer to that one.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">And why would ABC find the interview newsworthy at this time? ; Was there more salacious stuff to be revealed? ; Apparently not.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The fraudulent Steele Dossier was allegedly passed on to Hillary Clinton campaign operatives – and from there it went to the FBI. ; Then FBI Director James Comey &; Co. jumped on the document to gain permission to surveil Trump operatives. ; They used the unvetted and unverified Dossier to launch the infamous Russian collusion investigation which &#8212; after 18 months and $35 million of taxpayer money – determined that no one associated with the Trump campaign had conspired with Russian meddling in the 2016 election.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Dossier-triggered scandal may arguably be the most successful dirty trick in presidential campaign history. ; As later events would reveal, it was the Clinton campaign that paid for the bogus Dossier – and then hand fed it to operatives in the FBI who were predisposed to undermine the Trump presidency in the hope of an impeachment and removal from office. ; That was the “Insurance policy” that the married FBI agent Peter Strzok alluded to in texts with his paramour, fellow FBI agent Lisa Page – who was emotionally unhinged over Trump’s election.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Unfortunately for the Clinton folks, they left their fingerprints all over the Dossier. ; After it was totally discredited, the spotlight was turned on those who created the hoax. ; Those involved are still under investigations today. ; It is no small irony that those who set up the phony Dossier to falsely accuse Trump of conspiring with Russians &#8212; the Clinton campaign &#8212; conspired with Russians.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If Democrats and the media thought that the re-emergence of Steele would breathe life into the old story, they may be badly mistaken. ; Steele is far from a credible witness. ; He made one concession that brought down the credibility of everything he said in that interview – and everything that he said in the past. ; And – for that matter – everything the Clinton campaign, the media and the anti-Trump cabal within the FBI had said over many months.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Steele said that he was not 100 percent certain that the claims made in the Dossier were 100 percent true. ; Could he assure the public that ANY of the damaging claims were true? ; Nope. ; He did believe that Trump’s then- personal attorney Michael Cohen was in Prague, as detailed in the Dossier. ; While Steele said he thought it was possibly true, he could not explain – when asked by Stephanopoulos – why all the hard evidence proved that Cohen could not possibly have been in Prague – and why Cohen – who had a falling out with Trump&#8211; ; has not supported that detail.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Steele still believes that the reported so-called “golden showers” tape exists. ; That is the one that reportedly shows women prostitutes urinating on Trump. ; It has never surfaced – according to Steele’s personal conspiracy theory – because Russian President Vladimir Putin was using it to blackmail Trump. ; Trump has dismissed the existence of the tape saying that everyone knows he is a bit of a germaphobe. ;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If Steele’s interview was designed to resurrect all the old idle debunked gossip about Trump, it may backfire. ; Revisiting those issues is more likely to expose the skullduggery of the Clinton campaign and the unethical – if not criminal – complicity of the FBI just as the ongoing investigations into those matters are beginning to mature.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, there ‘tis.</p>

The Steele Dossier is baaack … and so is he
