In the case of the Trump dossier - the allegations compiled by a former British spy hired by the Clinton campaign to gather dirt on presidential candidate Donald Trump - the generally accepted standard of justice has been turned on its head. Now, the question is: Can the accused prove the charges false? Increasingly, the president's critics argue that the dossier is legitimate because it has not been proven untrue.
In late December, Laurence Tribe, the Harvard law professor, tweeted a message about the allegations against Trump to his followers: "Retweet if, like me, you're aware of nothing in the [Trump] dossier that has been shown to be false."
That's where the Trump dossier story stands today.
What is still unclear is how much effort the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies put into trying to prove the dossier's allegations.
Fired FBI Director James Comey noted in his January 28, 2017 memo that Trump asked that the FBI investigate the dossier's so-called "Golden showers" allegation - the charge that Trump watched as prostitutes performed a kinky sex show in a Moscow hotel room in 2013.
In the new book Russian Roulette, authors Michael Isikoff and David Corn note that Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the dossier, once said there was perhaps a 50-50 chance of the Moscow sex episode being true.
Some leading lights in the political conversation defend the dossier by arguing that it has not been proven untrue - as if that, instead of proof of truth, were the standard to apply to such consequential allegations.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-is-cant-prove-untrue-new-standard-in-trump-probe
In late December, Laurence Tribe, the Harvard law professor, tweeted a message about the allegations against Trump to his followers: "Retweet if, like me, you're aware of nothing in the [Trump] dossier that has been shown to be false."
That's where the Trump dossier story stands today.
What is still unclear is how much effort the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies put into trying to prove the dossier's allegations.
Fired FBI Director James Comey noted in his January 28, 2017 memo that Trump asked that the FBI investigate the dossier's so-called "Golden showers" allegation - the charge that Trump watched as prostitutes performed a kinky sex show in a Moscow hotel room in 2013.
In the new book Russian Roulette, authors Michael Isikoff and David Corn note that Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the dossier, once said there was perhaps a 50-50 chance of the Moscow sex episode being true.
Some leading lights in the political conversation defend the dossier by arguing that it has not been proven untrue - as if that, instead of proof of truth, were the standard to apply to such consequential allegations.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-is-cant-prove-untrue-new-standard-in-trump-probe
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