Democrats, before and during President Trump’s tenure in the Oval Office, repeatedly affirmed their belief in the accuracy and truth of the Steele dossier claims.
Some were more assiduous that others, and one, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., pushed over and over for President Trump’s impeachment based on the now-debunked stories, assuring Americans he had absolute proof of the nefarious dealings it alleged.
Now, of course, those claims of Trump campaign collusion with Russia have been shown to be false, and actually the evidence shows it was Hillary Clinton’s campaign who funded the narrative, using sources in Russia, in order, according to a briefing given to Barack Obama at the time, divert America’s attention away from her email scandal.
But Democrats before and during Trump’s presidency affirmed their confidence, over and over, that the false conspiracy theory narrative was real.
They’re not saying so much now, now that indictments against those involved have started coming from special counsel John Durham.
Fox News said it tried to contact all seven Democratic members who were on the House Intelligence Committee during its probe of the collusion allegations, and who “promoted or defended the dossier.”
“None of their offices responded,” the report said.
It listed Democrat Reps. Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, Joaquin Castro, Mike Quigley, Jackie Speier, André Carson and Jim Himes.
Explained the report, “Schiff was confronted over the dossiers but refused to address the issue head-on. None of the other Democrats appears to have addressed Danchenko’s indictment despite previously hyping the anti-Trump report.”
The reference was to Igor Danchenko, considered a primary sub-source of the claims assembled by ex-British agent Christopher Steele.
Durham, tasked with investigating how the false collusion narrative was created under Obama’s administration, and how its false allegations were used against President Trump as a candidate and as president, already has obtained a guilty plea from one FBI agent for changing evidence, and has released an indictment of onetime Hillary Clinton lawyer Michael Sussman.
And then this week, Danchenko was indicted on counts of lying to the FBI.
Those Democrats who “touted” the dossier, “are now quiet,” Fox reported.
Claims allegedly assembled by Danchenko and used by Steele were used as the basis for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
The DOJ’s inspector general some time ago released a report with a long list of critical mistakes and problems that the FBI and other Washington insiders committed in their campaign against the sitting president.
Fox explained, “Almost every Democrat on the Intelligence Committee in 2017 and 2018, when the committee probed Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 elections, elevated the discredited dossier.”
Schiff had said, at the time, “Unilateral subpoenas issued by House Intel Majority appear to be part of effort to discredit Steele, rather than determine truth of dossier.
“We certainly want to get to the bottom of the details of that dossier and report what has been substantiated, what hasn’t, and find out just how he based those conclusions and to whatever degree he is willing to share with us any sources of his information,” Schiff claimed.
Former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortegas confronted Schiff this week about the dossier, and his advocacy for it, the report said.
“You defended, promoted and even read into the Congressional Record the Steele dossier,” Ortagus told Schiff. “We know last week the main source of the dossier was indicted by the FBI for lying about most of the key claims in that dossier. Do you have any reflections on your role in promoting this to the American people?”
Schiff avoided the question, simply answering that those who lied to Steele or the FBI should be prosecuted, although it is not, in fact, a crime to lie to Steele.
Fox anchor Martha MacCallum previously had confronted Swalwell about anything he regretted saying about the Russia investigation, and he responded he didn’t see anything that had gone too far.
“So it doesn’t bother you that the [Hillary] Clinton campaign paid for a dossier to be put together by someone who had all kinds of ties to intelligence and put together something that turned out to be not necessarily factual?” MacCallum asked.
Swalwell wondered what hadn’t been proven factual.
MacCallum responded, “Are you serious?” And she cited a list of dossier claims, “none of which were ever confirmed,” the report said.
Castro had said, back then, “My focus today is to explore how many claims within Steele’s dossier are looking more and more likely, as though they are accurate.”
Unilateral subpoenas issued by House Intel Majority appear to be part of effort to discredit Steele, rather than determine truth of dossier. pic.twitter.com/wzVZ1GUkde
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) September 6, 2017
Sole purpose of FBI subpoena was to discredit Christopher Steele instead of doing our due diligence to evaluate whether his claims are true. pic.twitter.com/QlJBtUkH8S
— Mike Quigley (@RepMikeQuigley) September 6, 2017
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