The second Steele memo

[jackstar7]

I was just being curious. It's now clear to me that it's not worth my time or effort. I probably should have posted in the Discussion Club forum.

Portrayed years earlier by the ingenious Phil Hartman:

 

[feralkid]

I'm confused.

Situation normal.

 

[Greenman]

That Steel fellow must be making bank off of this deal. I'd bet a dollar he comes out with a book within 2 years. It will have "Even more explosive information!!!". The guy will make millions off of it, and Trump will sue him for his cut.

 

[UberNeuman]

That Steel fellow must be making bank off of this deal. I'd bet a dollar he comes out with a book within 2 years. It will have "Even more explosive information!!!". The guy will make millions off of it, and Trump will sue him for his cut.

lol. Trump ain't getting shit.

 

[UNCjigga]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/12/christopher-steele-the-man-behind-the-trump-dossier

Some really interesting reporting here on Steele.

Basically, the entire Nunes/GOP narrative on Steele and his intentions is blown apart.

1. Steele had been researching Russian meddling in elections in France, Italy, UK, Germany and Turkey independently of Fusion/DNC, and had just published his "Project Charlemagne" report in April 2016. This explains why he was recommended to Fusion.

2. Steele had also investigated criminals who just happened to live in Trump Tower and get close to Trump, including a Russian businessman running an international gambling and money laundering ring (who eluded arrest and ended up sitting next to Trump at the Moscow Miss Universe pageant.

Clinton and the DNC had no idea Steele was working with the FBI, or that the FBI had already been investigating anyone on the Trump team. Had they known, they'd have "screamed it from the rooftops" before the election.

"[Clinton foreign policy advisor Laura] Rosenberger, meanwhile, had no idea that the Clinton campaign had indirectly employed a Russia expert: Steele. Orbis’s work was sealed off, behind a legal barrier. Marc Elias, the attorney at Perkins Coie who was serving as the Clinton campaign’s general counsel, acted as a firewall between the campaign and the private investigators digging up information on Trump. It’s a common practice for law firms to hire investigators on behalf of clients, so that any details can be protected by attorney-client privilege. Fusion briefed only Elias on the reports. Simpson sent Elias nothing on paper—he was briefed orally. Elias, according to people familiar with the matter, was flabbergasted by the dossier but wasn’t sure what to do with the allegations. “Sex stuff is kind of worthless in a campaign,” Simpson told me. In the absence of live accusers or documentary evidence, such material is easy to dismiss, and can make the purveyor look sleazy."

 

[Greenman]

lol. Trump ain't getting shit.

Doesn't mean he won't try. Money will be made, a lot of it, and all at Trumps expense. If he isn't convicted of a crime, he'll go after Steele. If Trump is convicted of something, Steele will be rolling in cash from book sales, tv appearances, and speaking engagements.

 

[Jhhnn]

That Steel fellow must be making bank off of this deal. I'd bet a dollar he comes out with a book within 2 years. It will have "Even more explosive information!!!". The guy will make millions off of it, and Trump will sue him for his cut.

Standard impugn the motives of the critics attack format.

 

[Greenman]

Standard impugn the motives of the critics attack format.

You don't think it was about money? He was paid to put the thing together. The guy isn't a hero or a humanitarian, he's spy who found a side job.
At this point, the dossier is a paid for hit piece, and I would say the exact same thing if it was about Hillary, Obama, Bush, or the Pope. Steele may be a stand up guy doing what he thinks is right, but he is profiting from it, and the more outrageous the claims, the greater the profit. Always follow the money.

 

[nickqt]

You don't think it was about money? He was paid to put the thing together. The guy isn't a hero or a humanitarian, he's spy who found a side job.
At this point, the dossier is a paid for hit piece, and I would say the exact same thing if it was about Hillary, Obama, Bush, or the Pope. Steele may be a stand up guy doing what he thinks is right, but he is profiting from it, and the more outrageous the claims, the greater the profit. Always follow the money.

Someone got paid for it, so ignore whatever it says.

Especially if it pertains to Strongman Trump, who, if you'd just stop victimizing, would Make America Great Again, etc., etc., ad nauseam.

 

[UNCjigga]

You don't think it was about money? He was paid to put the thing together. The guy isn't a hero or a humanitarian, he's spy who found a side job.
At this point, the dossier is a paid for hit piece, and I would say the exact same thing if it was about Hillary, Obama, Bush, or the Pope. Steele may be a stand up guy doing what he thinks is right, but he is profiting from it, and the more outrageous the claims, the greater the profit. Always follow the money.

He was paid to do a job, he did his job. I think initially he didn't really care about what he found as long as the FBI did their jobs to investigate whether any crimes were being committed. But when the FBI did nothing, and instead went after Hillary's emails, I imagine he might've been concerned. Especially if he believed the information in the dossier to be true. So yeah, I understand questioning his intentions about leaking to the press, but not for the dossier itself.

 

[HomerJS]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/12/christopher-steele-the-man-behind-the-trump-dossier


Clinton and the DNC had no idea Steele was working with the FBI, or that the FBI had already been investigating anyone on the Trump team. Had they known, they'd have "screamed it from the rooftops" before the election.

Pretty much ends the desperate claims by Russia/Trump bots the Clintons are the ones really colluding with Russia

 

[Greenman]

Someone got paid for it, so ignore whatever it says.

Especially if it pertains to Strongman Trump, who, if you'd just stop victimizing, would Make America Great Again, etc., etc., ad nauseam.

Could you highlight where I said that?
I said it was a paid hit piece, and as of now that's what it is. If it's all verifiable Trump will be impeached, and rightly so. Regardless of how it pans out, Steele will profit from it. I never claimed that negated the veracity of the document, that still remains to be seen. You're trying to defend Steele's honer because you want to believe him. I don't care. If he has it right Trump is history, if it's a fairy tale Trump walks and Steele will still make money. I want the just outcome. I need more than my dislike of Trump to believe a largely unsubstantiated story. Being an ass isn't a crime, it's just annoying as hell.

 

[HomerJS]

It was pretty obvious that there was something up with the Tillerson pick.

Same Tillerson who received a friends of Putin award

 

[jackstar7]

And here I bet Steele is carrying a Geiger counter, rather than being concerned with any money that might come his way from this.

Putin might go down as one of the most high-profile serial killers of our era.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-ill-man-is-former-russian-spy-sergei-skripal

 

[woolfe9998]

Could you highlight where I said that?
I said it was a paid hit piece, and as of now that's what it is. If it's all verifiable Trump will be impeached, and rightly so. Regardless of how it pans out, Steele will profit from it. I never claimed that negated the veracity of the document, that still remains to be seen. You're trying to defend Steele's honer because you want to believe him. I don't care. If he has it right Trump is history, if it's a fairy tale Trump walks and Steele will still make money. I want the just outcome. I need more than my dislike of Trump to believe a largely unsubstantiated story. Being an ass isn't a crime, it's just annoying as hell.

Everyone does whatever they do for money. It's called a job. Most people do it at least adequately well. If you are seriously arguing that we can't trust anyone who got paid for what they did, you are a total moron. "He got paid to do it" isn't any kind of argument at all.

 

[mikeymikec]

You don't think it was about money? He was paid to put the thing together. The guy isn't a hero or a humanitarian, he's spy who found a side job.
At this point, the dossier is a paid for hit piece, and I would say the exact same thing if it was about Hillary, Obama, Bush, or the Pope. Steele may be a stand up guy doing what he thinks is right, but he is profiting from it, and the more outrageous the claims, the greater the profit. Always follow the money.

I would understand your opinion if this was after the Russia investigation had officially completed and was a complete nothingburger, but you're continuing to whine about it despite the fact that obviously there has to be some substance to the investigation because otherwise there wouldn't have been multiple arrests (is it still 4 or 5 now?) of the Trump campaign/admin staff. Making Steele out to be like a tabloid reporter makes no sense at this point. You talked about people wanting to "defend Steele's honour": Most people are likely to consider Steele to be pretty irrelevant at this point as his dossiers were part of the basis to call for a US investigation, not the end of it.

Please note something here: The people you're arguing with aren't arguing for why you must believe what came from Steele, but you're arguing why people shouldn't believe it. Theirs is a far more open-minded position than yours. While being sceptical is a good thing (and the sceptic's position would be "let's see what the investigation makes of these allegations"), your position goes beyond that because you're trying to smear the publicly-known basis of the investigation.

 

[fskimospy]

Could you highlight where I said that?
I said it was a paid hit piece, and as of now that's what it is. If it's all verifiable Trump will be impeached, and rightly so. Regardless of how it pans out, Steele will profit from it. I never claimed that negated the veracity of the document, that still remains to be seen. You're trying to defend Steele's honer because you want to believe him. I don't care. If he has it right Trump is history, if it's a fairy tale Trump walks and Steele will still make money. I want the just outcome. I need more than my dislike of Trump to believe a largely unsubstantiated story. Being an ass isn't a crime, it's just annoying as hell.

There’s no need to defend Steele’s honor, he is widely considered to be a credible source by the intelligence community. It doesn’t mean everything in the dossier is right, I doubt Steele would make that claim. It does mean that it’s more likely to be right than not though.

 

[dank69]

You don't think it was about money? He was paid to put the thing together. The guy isn't a hero or a humanitarian, he's spy who found a side job.
At this point, the dossier is a paid for hit piece, and I would say the exact same thing if it was about Hillary, Obama, Bush, or the Pope. Steele may be a stand up guy doing what he thinks is right, but he is profiting from it, and the more outrageous the claims, the greater the profit. Always follow the money.

Yeah I am sure he was itching to destroy his own reputation as a credible investigator by making up sensational bullshit in the hopes for a book deal.

 

[dainthomas]

Yeah I am sure he was itching to destroy his own reputation as a credible investigator by making up sensational bullshit in the hopes for a book deal.

Don't forget the added benefit of having his entire extended family harassed and him going into hiding. Who could pass that up?

It's like the women who accused Dump of assault/harassment. I'm sure numerous death threats and general right-wing sliming were totally worth the chump change they got from doing a few talk shows.

Must be Soros paying all of them.

 

[dank69]

Don't forget the added benefit of having his entire extended family harassed and him going into hiding. Who could pass that up?

It's like the women who accused Dump of assault/harassment. I'm sure numerous death threats and general right-wing sliming were totally worth the chump change they got from doing a few talk shows.

Must be Soros paying all of them.

Makes much more sense than the preposterous idea that Trump is a scumbag.

 

[emperus]

You don't think it was about money? He was paid to put the thing together. The guy isn't a hero or a humanitarian, he's spy who found a side job.
At this point, the dossier is a paid for hit piece, and I would say the exact same thing if it was about Hillary, Obama, Bush, or the Pope. Steele may be a stand up guy doing what he thinks is right, but he is profiting from it, and the more outrageous the claims, the greater the profit. Always follow the money.

I guess you don't understand how a spy works. Who do you believe would employ him as a spy if his information isn't largely credible? Or let's put this in numbers. He was paid 168,000 to destroy his life for a hit piece that was never used and largely wrong. Yup makes perfect sense. And then on top of that he sent this hit piece to the FBI who he had a strong relationship beforehand and who fucking over could make his life a perfect hell.

Yup, straight out of FOx NEws logic.

 

[fskimospy]

I guess you don't understand how a spy works. Who do you believe would employ him as a spy if his information isn't largely credible? Or let's put this in numbers. He was paid 168,000 to destroy his life for a hit piece that was never used and largely wrong. Yup makes perfect sense. And then on top of that he sent this hit piece to the FBI who he had a strong relationship beforehand and who fucking over could make his life a perfect hell.

Yup, straight out of FOx NEws logic.

It also makes no sense as Hillary Clinton was not his client. He was paid to provide accurate information, not just information critical of Trump. If his employer relied on inaccurate information from him that it later transmitted to the Clinton campaign and it turned out to be wrong it would make it less likely for them to hire him in the future. He didn't gain anything by providing false information to them as frankly, if they didn't care about the information's truth or falsity they could have simply made it up themselves.

 

[hal2kilo]

You don't think it was about money? He was paid to put the thing together. The guy isn't a hero or a humanitarian, he's spy who found a side job.
At this point, the dossier is a paid for hit piece, and I would say the exact same thing if it was about Hillary, Obama, Bush, or the Pope. Steele may be a stand up guy doing what he thinks is right, but he is profiting from it, and the more outrageous the claims, the greater the profit. Always follow the money.

I consider him to be a patriot. Contrary to Grassley and the idiot from S. Carolina who want to bring him up on charges. Charges for f'ing what? His motivation is that he was alarmed for the US. You assholes with your projection of everything being some sleazy deal. There are people in the world who really care about basically what's right.

 

[Moonbeam]

If Steele were in it for the money, I am sure the best price for his dossier would have been had by blackmailing Trump. I remember something about somebody in Australia tripping on a 300 million dollar gold nugget. I guess they took the fall intentionally for the money or was it that the money was generated by what the person fell over.

Greenman, get your head on straight. Russian propaganda is there to make people doubt their own instincts and be suspicious of everybody. The best spy will always be one who spies for the good guys, who believes in the virtue of what he is doing. Surely such people exist. Money corrupts, but only corrupts people who are corruptible, who have no inner values that are primary. I always thought you were that kind of person. What happened that you don't see that possibility in Steele?