Congress continues to ask questions concerning the Christopher Steele dossier, now focusing on whether the author of the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee-funded political poppycock previously worked for the Russians.
In his lawsuits, Gubarev, who emigrated from Russia to Cyprus in 2002, claims Steele defamed him by stating that his companies, XBT Holding S.A. and its Florida-based subsidiary, Webzilla, hacked the Democratic Party by "Using botnets and porn traffic to transmit viruses, plant bugs, steal data and conduct 'altering operations.'" While Gubarev's lawsuits focus on only a sliver of the Steele dossier, to prove his case-especially against BuzzFeed, which as a U.S. media outlet is protected from liability absent malice-Gubarev needs details.
Following a hearing on its motion, BuzzFeed filed a follow-up report with the district court, noting that rather than depose government officials, it merely needed the federal government to submit an affidavit swearing to three facts: whether, prior to January 10, 2017, the FBI, DOJ, or Office of National Intelligence had a copy of the dossier as published by BuzzFeed; "Whether on or about December 9, 2016, the FBI received from Senator John McCain a copy of the Dossier containing the first 33 pages published by BuzzFeed"; and "Whether, prior to January 10, 2017, Mr. Clapper, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Brennan, and/or Mr. Comey briefed President Obama about the Dossier and provided a synopsis of it."
The third fight for information involves Gubarev's attempts to force Fusion GPS-the company that paid Steele on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC for the information complied in the dossier-to respond to his subpoena seeking documents related to Steele, the dossier, and XBT holding and Webzilla.
Steele stated that he "Considered, correctly, that the raw intelligence in the December memorandum needed to be analyzed and further investigated/verified." Steele also explained that he arranged for Kramer, a former U.S. State Department employee and assistant secretary of state, to provide a copy of the dossier to McCain "For the sole purpose of analyzing, investigating and verifying their contents to enable such action to be taken as necessary for the purpose of protecting US national security." Steele added that he "Expressly informed" Kramer that the memoranda were only to be used for this exclusive purpose.
Now that the London court has ordered Steele to submit to questioning by Gubarev and BuzzFeed's attorneys, we can expect Steele to further dumb down his dossier story to mesh with his theory of defense in his libel case, namely that the dossier consisted of raw intelligence that "Did not represent verified facts."
Kramer has long been suspected of leaking the dossier to BuzzFeed, but while Gubarev now knows who provided BuzzFeed with the dossier, he cannot disclose that information.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/03/27/next-big-revelations-steele-dossier-will-come-courts-not-congress/
In his lawsuits, Gubarev, who emigrated from Russia to Cyprus in 2002, claims Steele defamed him by stating that his companies, XBT Holding S.A. and its Florida-based subsidiary, Webzilla, hacked the Democratic Party by "Using botnets and porn traffic to transmit viruses, plant bugs, steal data and conduct 'altering operations.'" While Gubarev's lawsuits focus on only a sliver of the Steele dossier, to prove his case-especially against BuzzFeed, which as a U.S. media outlet is protected from liability absent malice-Gubarev needs details.
Following a hearing on its motion, BuzzFeed filed a follow-up report with the district court, noting that rather than depose government officials, it merely needed the federal government to submit an affidavit swearing to three facts: whether, prior to January 10, 2017, the FBI, DOJ, or Office of National Intelligence had a copy of the dossier as published by BuzzFeed; "Whether on or about December 9, 2016, the FBI received from Senator John McCain a copy of the Dossier containing the first 33 pages published by BuzzFeed"; and "Whether, prior to January 10, 2017, Mr. Clapper, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Brennan, and/or Mr. Comey briefed President Obama about the Dossier and provided a synopsis of it."
The third fight for information involves Gubarev's attempts to force Fusion GPS-the company that paid Steele on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC for the information complied in the dossier-to respond to his subpoena seeking documents related to Steele, the dossier, and XBT holding and Webzilla.
Steele stated that he "Considered, correctly, that the raw intelligence in the December memorandum needed to be analyzed and further investigated/verified." Steele also explained that he arranged for Kramer, a former U.S. State Department employee and assistant secretary of state, to provide a copy of the dossier to McCain "For the sole purpose of analyzing, investigating and verifying their contents to enable such action to be taken as necessary for the purpose of protecting US national security." Steele added that he "Expressly informed" Kramer that the memoranda were only to be used for this exclusive purpose.
Now that the London court has ordered Steele to submit to questioning by Gubarev and BuzzFeed's attorneys, we can expect Steele to further dumb down his dossier story to mesh with his theory of defense in his libel case, namely that the dossier consisted of raw intelligence that "Did not represent verified facts."
Kramer has long been suspected of leaking the dossier to BuzzFeed, but while Gubarev now knows who provided BuzzFeed with the dossier, he cannot disclose that information.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/03/27/next-big-revelations-steele-dossier-will-come-courts-not-congress/
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