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Court files reveal role of McCain, aide in spreading anti-Trump dossier

From Steele's testimony, Kramer, who acted at McCain's request, was told by Steele that the information in the dossier would need to be verified and corroborated. Steele also told Kramer he was not able to vouch for everything, emphasis on "everything."

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Steele Deposition -- Exhibit 16 | Politics | Justice
 
trixare4kids said:
Court files reveal role of McCain, aide in spreading anti-Trump dossier



Regardless of how one feels about John McCain, the man, the long time senator who reached across the aisle to Democrats, a decorated war hero, a beloved father and husband, friend of many, I knew his hands were dirty when it came to the dossier and he lied about being involved in releasing an UNVERIFIED dossier to the media.

IMO, Trump's remarks about McCain not being a hero fueled McCain's vindictiveness. What a petty, false equivalency on McCain's part to give an unverified dossier about a sitting president to the media. Was he consumed with sour grapes or what?
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I have felt that this might be the case for a while and his action on ACA just helped to convince me. I suspect he was a never Trumper from the start.
 
Integrityrespec said:
I have felt that this might be the case for a while and his action on ACA just helped to convince me. I suspect he was a never Trumper from the start.
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He used a former state dept. guy, aka Mr. Kramer to act as his intermediary so he wouldn't get caught. Kramer did everything he asked of him.
I, too, suspected McCain lied about his part in releasing the Steele doc. to the media.

Rest his soul, but this is not aging well for McCain's legacy.
 
Parrish said:
Actually, he admitted it and apologized for his words.

Trump's Rare Apology - FactCheck.org

Donald Trump Apologizes For Remarks From 2005 Made About Women | HuffPost Canada

And then there are his Howard Stern confessions. Look those up for yourself.
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Apologizing for saying something as crude as that isn't the same as admitting to have done that. Looking at the transcript citation I've provided, they also have a transcript of Trump 'apology', and this doesn't amount to admitting anything other than to have said that, and not doing that.

Specifically: "I've said and done things I regret, and the words released today on this more-than-a-decade-old video are one of them."

Where is 'I apologize for grabber her by the ....' ? He didn't say that.

Again, I'm not defending the act. I'm not defending Trump. I'm not defending Trump for saying it.

I'm merely pointing out how far out of context the reporting on this has gone.
 
Lutherf said:
FWIW - Here's a link to what was actually released - Steele deposition -- Exhibit 66 | Deposition (Law) | Justice

It's really starting to piss me off that fewer and fewer outlets that hold themselves out to be providers of "News" fail to provide an indication of where one can find the supporting documentation for their commentary.
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Thank you for the above.
Anyone who cares about learning the truth about John McCain's Trump vindictiveness needs to read the Steele deposition.
IMO, if he were alive today he'd be knee deep in do-do.
 
eohrnberger said:
Apologizing for saying something as crude as that isn't the same as admitting to have done that. Looking at the transcript citation I've provided, they also have a transcript of Trump 'apology', and this doesn't amount to admitting anything other than to have said that, and not doing that.

Specifically: "I've said and done things I regret, and the words released today on this more-than-a-decade-old video are one of them."

Where is 'I apologize for grabber her by the ....' ? He didn't say that.

Again, I'm not defending the act. I'm not defending Trump. I'm not defending Trump for saying it.

I'm merely pointing out how far out of context the reporting on this has gone.
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You left out where he said that that wasn't who he is "today. "
 
GDViking said:
Nope not a one...
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Well, the Prague thing. So the one claim that was discredited over two years ago remains the only discredited claim today. For such a thoroughly utterly "debunked" dossier that's filled with so many claims, you'd think one or two more claims would be discredited by now.
 
Lutherf said:
Well, Cohen being in Prague has been generally denied by Cohen himself. Whether that means it's been debunked or not appears to be a matter of opinion.
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So you believe he was a Liar, unless something he says supports your opinion, noted.
 
trixare4kids said:
More information on when the dossier was written.

According to this report, the Steele document, as Steel testified, was written on the Dec. 13, 2016.
page 11
Steele Deposition -- Exhibit 16 | Politics | Justice

He testified none of it was ever verified by himself. IOW, he never bothered to go back to Russia and get verification. Page 12.
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FISA shocker: DOJ official warned Steele dossier was connected to Clinton, might be biased | TheHill

The then-senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official briefed both senior FBI and DOJ officials in summer 2016 about Christopher Steele’s Russia dossier, explicitly cautioning that the British intelligence operative’s work was opposition research connected to Hillary Clinton’s campaign and might be biased.

Ohr’s briefings, in July and August 2016, included the deputy director of the FBI, a top lawyer for then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and a Justice official who later would become the top deputy to special counsel Robert Mueller.
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Lutherf said:
Here's the Kramer deposition that was also referenced - Kramer Depositioin
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McCain asked Kramer to go meet with Steele and fetch the dossier... Kramer wasn't even told by Steele who hired him to get dirt on Trump.
Kramer was told by Steele everything in the dossier needed to be verified and corroborated.

Good Lord...
 
JANFU said:
FISA shocker: DOJ official warned Steele dossier was connected to Clinton, might be biased | TheHill
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And? That testimony came after the release of the dossier to the media.
The dossier was released to BUZZFEED Jan. 2017 by McCain's intermediary David Kramer and both knew it was unverified and uncorroborated then but they went forth with their deceptive scheme anyway, and McCain lied having no part in the deception afterward... Hell, he was behind the whole thing!
 
trixare4kids said:
He used a former state dept. guy, aka Mr. Kramer to act as his intermediary so he wouldn't get caught. Kramer did everything he asked of him.
I, too, suspected McCain lied about his part in releasing the Steele doc. to the media.

Rest his soul, but this is not aging well for McCain's legacy.
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So in other words, this particular copy of the Steele dossier was never vetted by US intelligence analysts before being used by the FBI?

Considering its foreign source (From Russian Intel to Steele to the FBI), one would have thought this to be standard practice and a wise precaution, considering where it was going to be used, i.e. FISA court in support of a FISA warrant.

Me thinks someone dropped the ball here, perhaps on purpose.
 
eohrnberger said:
So in other words, this particular copy of the Steele dossier was never vetted by US intelligence analysts before being used by the FBI?
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I don't know.

Considering its foreign source (From Russian Intel to Steele to the FBI), one would have thought this to be standard practice and a wise precaution, considering where it was going to be used, i.e. FISA court in support of a FISA warrant
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.

There is no proof the information in the dossier even came from Russian INTEL. If you read Steele's testimony from the scribd link, he wouldn't say who his sources were and apparently Comey's FBI didn't care either. :shock:

Me thinks someone dropped the ball here, perhaps on purpose.
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Damn right.
 
Parrish said:
You left out where he said that that wasn't who he is "today. "
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:shrug:

To be fair, this new favored activity of some dragging out things from years and years ago to smear someone is little to be desired and applauded, regardless of whom it applies to. Being fair and all. No one is the same person they were 10 years ago. Heck, probably not even 5 years ago.
 
Lutherf said:
The FBI was collaborating with Steele to put the thing together at the point you mention. Basically, everybody and their uncle knew it was around and knew it was crap but McCain, the one guy in the whole world more butthurt than Hillary that Trump won, decided he had an obligation to piss all over the Constitution, justice in general and the American people as a whole by making an issue out of the thing.
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Is that ever putting it mildly.
He really was evil.
 
eohrnberger said:
:shrug:

To be fair, this new favored activity of some dragging out things from years and years ago to smear someone is little to be desired and applauded, regardless of whom it applies to. Being fair and all. No one is the same person they were 10 years ago. Heck, probably not even 5 years ago.
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Until they're trying to save their political life. But you know that.
 
trixare4kids said:
I don't know.

.

There is no proof the information in the dossier even came from Russian INTEL. If you read Steele's testimony from the scribd link, he wouldn't say who his sources were and apparently Comey's FBI didn't care either. :shock:
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Well, if you can believe Vanity Fair,
How good were these sources? Consider what Steele would write in the memos he filed with Simpson: Source A—to use the careful nomenclature of his dossier—was “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure.” Source B was “a former top level intelligence officer still active in the Kremlin.”
How Ex-Spy Christopher Steele Compiled His Explosive Trump-Russia Doss | Vanity Fair
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This just happened to be the first hit in Google, but I've heard this particular claim from other sources as well.
Damn right.
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trixare4kids said:
See Item A: page 15 of Steele Testimony, (link below). The unverified Steels dossier was given to David Kramer by the request of John McCain, who then distributed copies to the media, including BUZZFEED.

Steele Deposition -- Exhibit 16 | Politics | Justice
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That is interesting....also that the statement you refer to appears on page 83 of the original transcript, and then Pages 84-90 are not included, we go to page 91.
It states that the dossier was given to Kramer at the request of McCain. It does not claim that McCain instructed Kramer to disclose it to the media. And then 6 pages are skipped, perhaps to save the identity of a source.

At that time the existence of the dossier was well known in Washington. It was a matter of time before it published.

It is also of interest to me that only Fox News and the Washington Times are heavily invested in reporting this "story." I'd like to see how coverage of this develops.
 
Parrish said:
Until they're trying to save their political life. But you know that.
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No, I've not liked or been supportive of this sort of thing from when it was started. Just as in criminal cases, where is there is a statue of limitations, same should be applied here, me thinks.
 
GDViking said:
Because this is not breaking news, it was common knowledge that McCain turned over a copy to the FBI as soon as it was given to him...
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The Steele and Kramer depositions released today are breaking news.
Wake up.
 
trixare4kids said:
The Steele and Kramer depositions released today are breaking news.
Wake up.
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Might also be related to why Calamity is starting so many TDS threads again today. :shrug:
 
Integrityrespec said:
I have felt that this might be the case for a while and his action on ACA just helped to convince me. I suspect he was a never Trumper from the start.
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Well no **** any and every true American was and is a never trumper.
 
I liked and respected McCain's military service but his political service puts a stain on his memory.
 
Cardinal said:
Well, the Prague thing. So the one claim that was discredited over two years ago remains the only discredited claim today. For such a thoroughly utterly "debunked" dossier that's filled with so many claims, you'd think one or two more claims would be discredited by now.
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The Prague thing has not been debunked, just not verified.

Cohen claims it wasn't him, however we do not know that it was not someone else, and I am still not sure it wasn't Cohen...
 
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