WaPo “Corrects” 14+ Reports on Steele Dossier
Washington Post editor Sally Buzbee is working on the newspaper’s accuracy by correcting false information (AKA fake news) in published articles related to the infamous Steele dossier.
The Steele dossier is an amalgamation of rumors about Donald Trump compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele at the behest of the Hillary Clinton campaign. It was used by the Obama Administration to launch an illegal spying operation targeting the Trump transition team. As I wrote last year (click here to view article), it was discovered that the FBI lied to the Senate Intelligence Committee when they backed the credibility of the report.
Last week, The Washington Post corrected a series of articles pertaining to the dossier after Ms Buzbee said she could no longer stand by the reports’ accuracy. At her direction, the newspaper altered headlines, added editor’s notes, and deleted sections identifying Sergei Millian as a source of information for Mr. Steele.
In total, at least 16 articles were altered, amended, or otherwise changed.
The corrections made to the articles about the Steele dossier followed the conclusion of Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe; an investigation which further discredited the validity of the dossier. As part of the investigation, Steele’s primary source of information – Igor Danchenko – was indicted. In 2017, Mr. Danchenko told FBI agents the information he gave Steele was “just talk” and that his sources were not worth a “grain of salt.”
Even Steele admitted Danchenko was a “boaster” and an “embellisher.”
As stated in an updated version of a WaPo article regarding a so-called affair Trump had that was described in the dossier: “Danchenko may have gotten his information about the hotel encounter not from Millian but from a Democratic Party operative with long-standing ties to Hillary Clinton.”
References to Millian as a source of information were removed from 8 additional articles published between March 2017 and April 2018. Last Wednesday, Danchenko pleaded not guilty to making false statements regarding the source of the information he gave Steele.
Author’s Note: Good on Ms Buzbee for trying to clean up The Washington Post, but unfortunately it is too late. Adding editor’s notes to articles is not going to change public opinion or make up for the lies that were published. Ironic that I just wrote an article about China changing its history (click here) with published statements praising the Chinese Communist Party’s glory and success.
Source:
Washington Post has corrected over a dozen articles related to Steele dossier coverage
That’s a lot of lies to explain away
“Adding editor’s notes to articles is not going to change public opinion or make up for the lies that were published. ”
Wow, Alice, you have a complete and total lack of self awareness, especially since you put this comment into your own “author’s note”. It’s like the perfect self-own.
Yeah, it’s a lot of lies; like Trump on his first tweet….. Alice counted them, it’s 14+ or at least 16 or now with 8 more added, it’s like a lot of lies somewhere inside all those numbers Alice has put on paper for us. So Alice has it tacked down between 14 and 24 articles. Dan says that’s a lot of lies to wash away. 24 WAPO articles —- anyone want to guess how many hundreds they wrote? And you’re somehow enraged over a retraction? Because Trump lied over 30,500 times in four years. On the record. Documented. No corrections. No retractions. No apologies.
I think when it comes to retractions, you should be quiet now.
Meanwhile:
Let’s be clear about the Steele Dosier: it’s an embarrassment on many levels, Democrats, FBI, even the GOP, but mostly the FBI — they are supposed to be better than politicians.
John Durham, Trump/Barr’s hand-picked lapdog prosecutor, says Steele’s primary source, lied to the FBI, under oath, where he got his information. Turns out he just made some of it up. A lot of it. The good stuff, the salacious stuff. But the Steele document never made Trump, he was in the crosshairs with it or without it. The Steele Document did not start the Trump Russia Investigation,
Remember, the Muller investigation found a whole bunch of different US government inquests that discovered dozens of contacts between Trump campaign associates and Russians, all proven to have happened. Trump and his top brass publicly asked for the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election, what do we think was being discussed in private – intercountry trade policies for after the election. Dozens of meetings. No one on the Trump side dealing with intercountry policies of any kind before the election no doubt. Muller couldn’t prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, the collusion from Steele’s memos, but the contacts were indeed troubling. As he documented.
Now we have lies, political maneuvering (code word for dirty tricks), and crooked police work (whether malicious or incompetence or both still tbd), It appears, at minimum, Democrats paid for the info, fed the fake info in, weaponized the fake info out then had the nerve, based on said actions, to ask for FBI investigations of Trump. Again, those investigations were already on, for other reasons, but still…..
So, where do we end up. According to CNN: “Looking at the big picture, Steele was right that Russia used “trusted agents of influence” to target Trump’s inner circle. And he was correct to suspect there were secret contacts between Trump aides and Russian officials, even though Trump denied any Russian ties. But Steele was wrong about so many of the key details. Despite a worldwide hunt for the Trump “kompromat,” no tapes ever emerged, and the Danchenko indictment puts the source of that underlying claim into doubt.
There is no proof of something in the dossier that would’ve been a smoking gun for collusion — that Trump’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen went to Prague in 2016 to coordinate with Russian officials about their anti-Clinton hacking efforts. The watchdog report said the FBI concluded that these claims “were not true.” Even after Cohen turned on Trump and started helping Mueller, and implicated his former boss in an illegal campaign finance scheme, Cohen always denied the Prague allegations.
The dossier said Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and foreign policy adviser Carter Page led the collusion efforts. But this was never verified by any government investigations. Mueller found that both men had extensive contacts with Russian agents, but he couldn’t verify that Page met with the specific Kremlin officials as alleged in the dossier.
The Mueller report said there wasn’t evidence of a criminal conspiracy to collude.
Five years on, Steele continues to defend his work. He told ABC News that “the evidence suggests” there was collusion, that he believes Cohen traveled to Prague after all, and that the compromising tape of Trump with Russian prostitutes “probably” exists. “I stand by the work we did, the sources that we had, and the professionalism which we applied to it,” Steele said in the interview with ABC News.”
The Steele Dossier had little to do with the origin of the Trump Investigation. No matter what lies Don tries to pull on Americans, the new Dossier explosions make no difference, don’t change a thing. It’s the Page investigation FISA warrants, or two of them, would not have happened without the Dossier’s lies. Page was never indicted. Except the FISAs, or lack of them would not have stopped the Trump Russia Investigation.
The inspector general examined the FBI’s FISA applications finding widespread mistakes, omissions and errors. The Justice Department declared that the final two FISA warrants against Page were legally invalid.
Durham hasn’t said that the FBI or Mueller ever relied on Steele for anything beyond the Page surveillance.
So, what do we know: The inspector general’s report confirmed that there were systemic problems with the FBI surveillance and the Steele dossier was improperly used to influence part of the Russia probe, the investigation of Carter Page who was never charged.
The report said the FISA process wasn’t intentionally abused and wasn’t politically biased.
The report debunked Trump’s lie about FBI planted campaign spies
Mueller and a bipartisan Senate inquiry concluded that Trump’s team welcomed Russian help, and tried to coordinate it on a few fronts, but it didn’t complete the actions for some reason or reasons.
Trump and his team frequently lied about most aspects of the Russia probe beginning with the initial false denial of Russian contacts even though there were dozens of contacts. After many of their denials were disproved, they shifted their story to another lie. Trump repeatedly undermined and obstructed Mueller’s investigation.
Much of the Steele dossier is false, some is true, none of it had much to do with starting the Mueller Probe nor is is used within the Mueller Probe. The only malfeasance was in the Carter Page FISA warrants and he was never indicted for anything. There is no new here that changes anything in the Mueller Report on Trump Russia influence and Trump obstruction of the US legal system.
Is anyone here in a position to recommend Latex? Cheers xox