CNN’s Brian Stelter claimed he was not familiar with the Steele dossier because he is a media reporter during an interview with conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt.
“Brian, that’s a deflection. The primary subsource of the dossier was revealed last week to be a Russian agent investigated by the Obama Department of Justice in 2009 and ’10. The dossier is discredited. There was no collusion. These are factual matters. That’s my problem with Hoax,” Hewitt told his guest Monday, referring to Stelter’s new book, Hoax.
“I’m reflecting, I’m a media reporter, and I’m not a Steele dossier reporter. What I know is that when you use the word ‘hoax’ over and over again the way the president has, it’s dangerous and poisonous because it makes people think there’s nothing real and nothing true anymore. And that’s what I think the problem is,” Stelter responded.
Hewitt then asked Stelter if he “will at least agree with me that the primary subsource of the dossier has been revealed to be a Russian agent?”
“I literally do not know because I’m a media reporter,” Stelter added.
Stelter joined Hewitt on his radio show to discuss his new book, which “tells the twisted story of the relationship between Donald Trump and Fox News. From the moment Trump glided down the golden escalator to announce his candidacy in the 2016 presidential election to his acquittal on two articles of impeachment in early 2020, Fox hosts spread his lies and smeared his enemies.”
The Steele dossier, compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, has been in the political spotlight throughout the Trump administration. U.S. Attorney John Durham discovered last week that the primary subsource Christopher Steele used was the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation under the Obama administration.
“First, the primary source for the Steele dossier was likely a Russian agent. Second, the primary subsource was suspected by the FBI in 2009 of being a Russian agent, and there had been an active counterintelligence investigation of this individual. That FBI investigation revealed the primary subsource was suspected of providing information to the Russian Embassy and was in contact with known Russian intelligence officers and made offers to people connected to incoming Obama administration officials that any classified information they provided could be paid for,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said.
“In addition, during this investigation, it was disclosed that the primary subsource persistently asked individuals about a particular military vessel of the United States. Third, the information provided shows that in December 2016, the FBI knew of the previous counterintelligence investigation of the primary subsource and the source’s ties to Russian intelligence services,” said Graham, a Republican.
In April, declassified footnotes from a Justice Department watchdog report also indicated Steele’s dossier was likely compromised by Russian disinformation.
“The [redacted] stated that it did not have high confidence in this subset of Steele’s reporting and assessed that the referenced subset was part of a Russian disinformation campaign to denigrate US foreign relations,” the footnote stated.
