Lögner och mediehån: Fördel Trump när Steele-rapporten kraschlandade

The Steele dossier, also known as the Trump–Russia dossier, is a political opposition research report written from June to December 2016 containing allegations of misconduct, conspiracy, and co-operation between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the government of Russia prior to and during the 2016 election campaign. NPR has described the controversial opposition research as an "explosive dossier of unsubstantiated and salacious material about President Trump's alleged ties with Russia". The dossier, leaked by BuzzFeed News in January 2017 without its author's permission, is an unfinished 35-page compilation of raw intelligence based on information from anonymous sources known to the author, counterintelligence specialist Christopher Steele, a former head of the Russia Desk for British intelligence (MI6), written for the private investigative firm Fusion GPS and paid for by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The dossier's 17 reports allege that Trump campaign members and Russian operatives had conspired to co-operate in Russia's election interference to benefit Trump. It also alleges that Russia sought to damage Hillary Clinton's candidacy, including sharing negative information about Clinton with the Trump campaign. Several mainstream media outlets criticized BuzzFeed's decision to publish the reports without verifying their allegations, while others defended its decision.In June 2016, Fusion GPS subcontracted Steele's firm to compile the dossier. DNC officials denied knowing their attorney had contracted with Fusion GPS, and Steele asserted he was not aware the Clinton campaign was the recipient of his research until months after he contracted with Fusion GPS. Following Trump's election as president, funding from Clinton and the DNC ceased, but Steele continued his research and was reportedly paid directly by Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn R. Simpson. While compiling the dossier, Steele passed some of his findings to both British and American intelligence services.The intelligence community and most experts have treated the dossier with caution due to its unverified allegations, while Trump denounced it as fake news. The U.S. intelligence community took the allegations seriously, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated every line of the dossier and identified and spoke with at least two of Steele's sources. In January 2017, the primary sub-source said that Steele misstated or exaggerated certain information. The Mueller Report contained passing references to some of the dossier's allegations but little mention of its more sensational claims.Some aspects of the dossier have been corroborated, in particular what Newsweek call's its "main finding", confirmed by the January 6, 2017, ODNI assessment, that Putin and Russia actively favored Trump over Clinton and that many Trump campaign officials and associates had multiple secret contacts with Russians. However, many allegations in the dossier remain unverified or have been dismissed by authorities. Adam Goldman and Charlie Savage, two New York Times reporters heavily involved in reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, have described it as "deeply flawed". The Daily Telegraph has reported that anonymous sources believe Russian intelligence agencies may have sought to create doubt about the veracity of the dossier.The dossier played a central role in the seeking of FISA warrants on Carter Page after he left the Trump campaign in terms of establishing probable cause. It did not play any significant role in the intelligence community's assessment about Russian actions in the 2016 election, nor was it the trigger for the opening of the FBI's "Crossfire Hurricane" counterintelligence investigation into whether the Trump campaign was coordinating, wittingly or unwittingly, with the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The dossier is also a factor in several conspiracy theories promoted by Trump and many of Trump's supporters in the media and congress.