Fusion GPS has insisted that “nothing in the Steele memoranda has been disproven,” despite special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report refuting at least one of former British spy Christopher Steele’s bombshell claims and casting serious doubt on many others.
Mueller’s report confirmed that Cohen “had never traveled to Prague,” as Steele had alleged. Mueller found no collusion between President Trump or any of his associates and Russia. Steele’s dossier alleging there was a high-level conspiracy between Trump and the Kremlin.
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Fusion GPS stood by the Steele dossier in its entirety. Joshua Levy, counsel for Fusion GPS, said: “The Mueller Report substantiates the core reporting and many of the specifics in Christopher Steele’s 2016 memoranda, including that Trump campaign figures were secretly meeting Kremlin figures, that Russia was conducting a covert operation to elect Donald Trump, and that the aim of the Russian operation was to sow discord and disunity in the US and within the Transatlantic Alliance.”
“To our knowledge, nothing in the Steele memoranda has been disproven.”
Former CIA Moscow station chief Daniel Hoffman told the Examiner: “I called what bullshit the dossier was a year and a half ago … It’s likely FSB [the successor agency to the KGB] disinformation.”
Steele was hired by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS in 2016. Fusion GPS was, in turn, being paid by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm. The dossier was used as a central part of one Foreign Intelligence Surveillance application and three renewals to obtain a FISA warrant against former Trump campaign associate Carter Page. And it has come under increased scrutiny, with intelligence experts suggesting that some of its claims may have originated as Russian disinformation.
While it is true that the Mueller report confirmed meetings between Trump associates and Russians, and detailed how Russia used cyberattacks and social media misinformation to interfere in 2016, the Steele dossier contained unverified and now-disproven allegations that went well beyond that.
In his dossier, Steele claimed that a “Kremlin insider” told him about Cohen’s “secret meetings” in Prague with “Kremlin officials”, Putin-linked operatives, and foreign hackers in August 2016. Steele’s source also claimed that Cohen may have met in Prague with Russian officials at a Russian-owned office, that the meeting was facilitated and may have been attended by “leading pro-Putin Duma figure” Konstantin Kosachev, and that Cohen discussed plans with Kremlin representatives for covering up their tracks if Hillary Clinton won the election.
[Also read: Mueller undercuts two of ‘dossier’s’ biggest claims as Steele comes under scrutiny]
Cohen consistently denied these dossier claims, and Mueller concluded that the shady meetings of Cohen with nefarious Russian operatives never happened. McClatchy added editor’s notes to two of its Cohen-Prague stories.
The Steele dossier also alleged wide-ranging collusion between Trump and Russia, claiming to have “evidence of extensive conspiracy between campaign team and Kremlin, sanctioned at highest levels and involving Russian diplomatic staff based in the U.S. [who] agreed exchange of information established in both directions.”
But this was knocked down by Mueller, who said that, despite the Russian government’s extensive election interference efforts, “the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”
Michael Isikoff, the chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News, recently said the media should have shown “more skepticism” over the Steele dossier, which he described as “thirdhand stuff.”
Because Steele’s dossier was used in FISA applications, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who is inspecting FISA abuse, is focusing on Steele, who has declined to cooperate with the probe. Whether the investigation is also looking into the role that Fusion GPS played is unknown.
In March 2018, Horowitz announced the launch of this investigation after requests from both then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Republican members in Congress. The lawmakers claimed the Justice Department and FBI had abused the FISA process and misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in their investigation and surveillance of Trump and his associates during the campaign, as well as during the Trump administration.
The inspector general’s office said it would “examine the Justice Department’s and the FBI’s compliance with legal requirements, and with applicable DOJ and FBI policies and procedures, in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court relating to a certain U.S. person.” That reference is to Carter Page.
The Justice Department inspector general also stated it would “review information that was known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an alleged FBI confidential source.” That reference is to Christopher Steele.
Attorney General William Barr said the high-profile investigation is expected to conclude as soon as May.
