Just when you think you have grasped the enormity of the U.S. news media's Steele dossier scandal, it gets worse.
The "Primary subsource" for the so-called dossier was suspected once of being a Russian operative and a "Threat to national security," according to newly declassified FBI records.
To put things more clearly: The document the FBI used to secure authorization from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to spy on one-time Trump campaign aide Carter Page is based largely on the say-so of an individual the FBI itself once suspected of being a national security risk.
The Steele dossier's "Primary Sub-Source was the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation from 2009 to 2011 that assessed his/her documented contacts with suspected Russian intelligence officers," according to a newly declassified footnote from the Justice Department inspector general's report on suspected FISA abuse by the FBI. The report focuses specifically on whether the FBI acted improperly when it obtained authorization to spy on the Trump campaign.
"The FBI commenced this investigation based on information by the FBI indicating that the Primary Sub-Source may be a threat to national security," reads the abbreviated FBI summary.
It was not just BuzzFeed News that treated the Steele dossier as authentic.
We know now that the FBI at one point even suspected this person of being a "Threat to national security." We also know the dossier likely contains direct Kremlin disinformation.
Saturday, September 26, 2020
The news media's Steele dossier scandal is even worse than you thought
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