I have been asked to outline why the author of the “Steele Dossier”, former British intelligence officer Chris Steele, is doubling down on two central and disproven claims within his dossier.
In this preview segment of the Chris Steele interview with George Stephanopoulos, you will note that Steele denies two major flaws in his dossier: (1) the Russian pee-tapes story of Trump having Russian hookers peeing on him in a Moscow hotel; and (2) Michael Cohen traveling to Prague to facilitate the Trump-Russia collusion.
Both of these claims are ridiculous and debunked by Robert Mueller and FBI investigations, yet Chris Steele stands by them. There is an obvious reason why Steele must stick to those claims; however, few people understand the deep background of both claims. CTH knows the likelihood of both false claims and as a consequence we see the motive for why Steele needs to stick to them. First, watch this preview segment (prompted):
https://youtu.be/l561_SfQaPA?t=35
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It is highly likely that John Durham knows the exact origin of the Pee-Tapes and Cohen in Prague story. It is also likely when this interview took place that Chris Steele did not know what Durham and Aldenberg know, well, until now. {Hi Chris} Whether Durham does anything to hold Steele accountable will depend on whether Durham is going to act on the criminal referral he was given for Nellie Ohr {Go Deep}. I do not hold any level of confidence.
That said, let me explain why each of those fabricated elements of the Steele Dossier must be retained or else Steele opens himself up to a much larger issue. You’ll understand why he cannot admit they are false when you understand where he likely got the information. We shall start with the origin of the Pee Tapes story, and embed a bunch of links for those interested in going deep.
Chris Steele (left) and ABC’s George Stephanopoulos (right)
♦ The story of the Russian hookers peeing on Donald Trump almost certainly came from a Russian billionaire named Oleg Deripaska.
Christopher Steele was actually a contracted employee of Deripaska, at least Deripaska was paying Chris Steele for some type of work in the U.K. Oleg Deripaska is a typically sketchy wealthy Russian with some quirky aspects to his humor. Oleg’s U.S. lawyer was a guy named Adam Waldman. You might remember that Adam Waldman was also the legal liaison between Chris Steele and SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner {Go Deep}.
Adam Waldman is the connective tissue between Chris Steele, Oleg Deripaska and another name from the SSCI, former staffer Dan Jones. When Senator Chuck Grassley wanted to question the lawyer/lobbyist Adam Waldman, Waldman lied to avoid testimony {Go Deep}. Unfortunately it was a line of Senate query that was quickly dropped.
Oleg Deripaska was on his yacht in the summer of 2016 with a sketchy Russian sex/intelligence worker named Anastasia Vashukevich (27). [Both Pictured Left]
Vashukevich is the Belarusian woman who was being held in a prison in Thailand under charges of recruiting women to act as prostitutes and escorts. {Go Deep}
Ms. Vashukevich name surfaced early in 2018 when CNN claimed she had dirt on Trump and “tapes” of some sort relating to Deripaska and his activities with contacts around the 2016 election. [More Backstory]
In the height of the Trump-Russia madness, CNN sent Ivan Watson to Thailand to interview Ms. Vashukevich in the hopes that she could validate the “hookers” and “pee-tapes” material that was in the Steele Dossier. However, by the time CNN arrived, Anastasia changed her mind.
It turned out the recording Ms. Vashukevich was promoting/leveraging, was actually a recording of Oleg Deripaska; and, at his request she returned them to him.
FOX NEWS: […] Vashukevich told The Associated Press that she had turned over audio recordings to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, whose conversations about election interference she claimed to have taped.
She has said she provided “escort” services to Deripaska, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and who has links to Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager now being tried in the United States on money laundering and other charges.
Speaking to an AP reporter in the courtroom in Pattaya, Vashukevich said she had promised Deripaska she would no longer speak on the matter, and that he had already promised her something in return for not making that evidence public. (read more)
The tapes Ms. Vashukevich was discussing at the time (trying to leverage her way out of jail) was a previous recording by Deripaska of a conversation between Oleg and his retained employee Christopher Steele about then presidential candidate Donald Trump. This is the conversation where Trump, Russian hookers and pee-tapes came up. Keep in mind, Oleg likely knew what Steele’s questions were for; Oleg knew what Chris Steele did for a living, and Oleg had a motive to snark at the entire operation and U.S. election.
Deripaska didn’t trust anyone related to intelligence operations in either the U.K or the U.S, and Deripaska had previously been burned by the FBI in 2009 after they asked for his help. {Go Deep}
In 2009 the FBI, then headed by Robert Mueller, requested the assistance of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska in an operation to retrieve former FBI officer and CIA resource Robert Levinson who was captured in Iran two years earlier. The agent assigned to engage Deripaska was Andrew McCabe; the primary FBI need was financing and operational support. Deripaska spent around $25 million and would have succeeded except the U.S. State Department, then headed by Hillary Clinton, backed out.
In the summer of 2016, Steele was under retainer by Deripaska and also working for Fusion-GPS. In hindsight, the conversation was almost certainly part of the research Steele was doing for his Fusion-GPS assignment and assembly of the dossier into Trump. Oleg was an easy and obvious source, and Anastasia Vashukevich just happened to be with Oleg when the conversation took place. She snagged the tapes upon departure, she was busted in Thailand and tried to use the info to get out.
Keep in mind, in September of 2016 Andrew McCabe was Deputy Director of the FBI, when two FBI agents approached Deripaska in New York – asking for his help. The FBI request was for Deripaska to outline Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort as a tool of the Kremlin. Deripaska once hired Manafort as a political adviser and invested money with him in a business venture that went bad. Deripaska sued Manafort, alleging he stole money. However, according to a John Solomon article, despite Deripaska’s disposition toward Manafort, he viewed the FBI request as absurd. He laughed the FBI away, telling them: “You are trying to create something out of nothing.”
After Trump won the 2016 election, the entire apparatus of the U.S. intelligence system and DOJ turned on Deripaska because he now represented a risk {Go Deep}.
Chris Steele is sticking to that story of the pee-tapes because his connection to Oleg Deripaska, Adam Waldman, SSCI Chairman Mark Warner, Dan Jones, Fusion-GPS, Glenn Simpson, Nellie Ohr and Bruce Ohr is very prickly when it comes to his participation and intentional fabrication.
♦ The origin of the Michael Cohen in Prague is even more convoluted. However, that story connects to the recently highlighted connection between Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussmann and Rodney Joffe. While working for Perkins Coie, Sussmann also represented Rodney Joffe, a cybersecurity expert referred to in Durham’s indictment as “Tech Executive-1.” In 2016, Joffe, who has not been previously identified, worked with researchers to collect internet data about the Trump Organization that Sussmann took to the FBI. {Go Deep} You’ll see where Joffe surfaces toward the end.
The Michael Cohen in Prague story originates in the research conducted by Fusion-GPS after Glenn Simpson hired former CIA open-source researcher, Nellie Ohr.
Mrs. Nellie Ohr was the wife of DOJ-NSD lawyer Bruce Ohr who was also the primary 2016 conduit between Chris Steele and the FBI.
In September 2015, Nellie Ohr was hired by Fusion-GPS (Glenn Simpson) to work on the Trump research project {Go Deep}. In April 2016 Fusion-GPS was contracted by Clinton Campaign, through Perkins Coie, specifically to use their previous research and help fabricate evidence that Donald Trump and his associates were in collusion with the Russians. Fusion-GPS then contracted with Christopher Steele for the creation of the Trump-Russia dossier which later became the “Steele Dossier.”
For all intents and purposes, Christopher Steele was a laundry operation where he was given information from Nellie Ohr (and others), washed it, and then passed it back to his DOJ contact Bruce Ohr, who then passed it along to the FBI seemingly washing away the originating political fingerprints of Fusion-GPS and Nellie Ohr.
After the laundry was discovered; and after Bruce Ohr was demoted from his position at the DOJ; he was later interviewed by FBI investigators where Bruce Ohr passed along a thumb-drive with the total of his wife’s research. However, when he did that the Fusion GPS header was stripped (link).
It’s worth remembering here that Nellie Ohr’s involvement in the scheme was considered such a risk that the New York Times even ran an article saying Nellie Ohr did not work on the dossier. However, both Bruce Ohr and Nellie Ohr gave testimony that she did. The way Bruce Ohr described it, his wife’s research was like an additional dossier assembled from Fusion GPS research to augment what Steele was separately providing the FBI.
In October of 2018 Mrs. Nellie Ohr was questioned by a House committee about her involvement with Fusion-GPS while working as a paid contract agent for the firm. Additionally, she was questioned on: her relationship with the dossier origination; her contacts with Christopher Steele; her role and responsibility within Fusion as it related to the Trump project; and the nature of the communication between herself and the participating players inside and outside of government.
Mrs Ohr invoked spousal privilege to protect any communication between herself and her husband.
We now know that in 2016 a cybersecurity expert named Rodney Joffe was under contract with Perkins Coie and collaborating with researchers to collect internet data about the Trump Organization that Clinton Lawyer Michael Sussmann took to the FBI.
So we know the FBI was getting research information from Nellie Ohr via Chris Steele, and from Rodney Joffe via Michael Sussmann.
What do Nellie and Rodney have in common? They are both HAM Radio operators. What a coincidence.
There is every indication the Michael Cohen visiting Prague story originated from Nellie’s research and was passed along to Chris Steele becoming a point in his dossier. An unfortunately named art dealer from New York was likely mistaken for President Trump’s lawyer.
Former Senate Intelligence Committee lead staffer Dan Jones was working with Glenn Simpson at Fusion-GPS. Fusion-GPS contracted with Nellie Ohr in “late 2015”. This is the exact same time when thousands of unauthorized “contractor searches” were taking place within the NSA/FBI database. This is where the Ham radio comes in handy to receive, share and discuss information from database extraction.
Nellie Ohr then sends research outcomes to Chris Steele for the dossier assembly; and the dossier is then laundered back to Bruce Ohr and FBI for use in their operation against the Trump campaign. Meanwhile, Simpson and Jones are leaking to the media who are writing articles. Nellie then captures those articles to validate material in the dossier; puts the citations on a thumb-drive and gives it to Bruce. Again, it’s the same damn origin.
Chris Steele is not defending his lies, he is defending the mistaken research of Nellie Ohr.
For obvious reasons, Chris Steele cannot reveal where he got both points of erroneous information without exposing himself to the legal ramifications that accompany a group of political operatives successfully weaponizing the FBI against a U.S. presidential candidate. This is not conspiracy theory, this is a factual conspiracy.
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George Stephanopoulos and Thomas Friedman speculated openly for a “Time” magazine article about assassinating Saddam Hussein – this was for the November 24, 1997 issue – the cover story: “Showdown”
it showed a menacing, gigantic Saddam staring down a much smaller Bill Clinton – it was straight out of a comic book –
I saw it in the grocery store and bought it for my “archives” – that was in November 1997 – when the Lewinsky story broke in January 1998, I wondered later if this entire Saddam story was intended to distract from other things boiing on the back of the stove.
Later, during the Iraq invasion and then all the criticism of George W. Bush for going into Iraq began, whether you were on one side or the other of that, why did George Stephanopoulos and Thomas Friedman go merrily on their way, never being called out for being so skeered of Saddam that they openly contemplated assassination (nevermind the Church Committee).
I think they still need to be eviscerated for that – and “Time” magazine being a part of that – not a good look for American foreign policy!
I put the links to the cover, the main article and the side article (about assassinating Saddam) on Twitter – here is the link to my tweet with all that:
Trust the plan…. Get your shot!
Great article! Steele doesn’t ACTUALLY stand by everything contained in the Dossier…and uses several handily crafted qualifiers to keep from “lying”, which no one will remember, on two key items in the case.
1) Michael Cohen’s presence in Prague (2:47):
CS “I am prepared to accept that not everything in the dossier is 100% accurate. I have yet to be convinced that that is one of them.”
2) The tape (5:14):
GS “And today, do you still believe the tape actually exists?”
CS “I believe it probably does but I wouldn’t put 100% certainty on it.”
GS “So how do you explain if the tape does exist it hasn’t been released?”
CS “Well it hasn’t needed to be released.”
GS “Why not?”
CS “Because I think the Russians felt they got pretty good value out of Donald Trump when he was President of the United States.”
He strongly stands by Nellie Ohr–dissing Robert Mueller’s evidence and suggesting no one has provided him the evidence of the lie, but prevaricates a bit on the existence of the tape and directing attention over to Deripaska to find out the answer on its whereabouts.
All ABC wanted was the illusion Steele stands by his dossier.
This plausible deniability was the cornerstone of the entire hoax. No one is 100% on anything. They put together open source info and mixed it with bar talk to create a situation where Sussman could go to the FBI and say he sees a potential issue here and they must investigate. Then he uses that investigation as proof of the potential issue he found.
If anyone questions it, they just say, they didn’t know but they saw smoke and thought there might be a fire. They didn’t do anything wrong by pointing it out. In fact, they had a responsibility to point it out.
They PERSONIFIED the NSA database. Reread the affidavits. Their source isn’t A PERSON. But instead, it is the DATABASE, referred to AS A PERSON.
That’s their fear.
Sundance will delete this comment, sigh.
I dont think it will be deleted. You make a good point what is the reason SD would have your comment deleted? They laundered the comments from NSA to MSM, but that is SD theory too. Personified is an interesting and accurate way to put it
If you’re referring to the Dossier, that has proved to be false. Would the Database have information in it that happened to be false or did someone plant false information in the Database to set this hoax up?
This isn’t BB. CTH is quite tolerant of serious contributors – only a certain clientele can match its pace.
Actually the subject pervert of the document is Steele most likely.
My money is on the Russian oligarch as the subject pervert.
A bunch of crooked spies and communist whores.
ALL above the law.
Here is a fun fact about what Christopher Steele has been up to in the UK.
He’s part of a group advocating for the harshest Covid restrictions:
https://alethonews.com/2021/07/24/why-is-disgraced-ex-spy-christopher-steele-involved-in-a-controversial-group-seeking-harsh-covid-restrictions/
I guess when you’re a patsy for the cabal to bring down a US president, it’s not a big leap to join the NWO.
In the last few days, several leftest rags have been publishing stories on Trump responds to the pee tapes. We knew something was coming. All setting the narrative that it was 45 who was corrupt, illegetamate and perverse. This is the big push back against what is coming out. To change the focus to reset the news and hide their crimes. Could it be Durham that has them all shook up or is it Ms. Maxwell naming names now!? Maybe both.
Happy halloween nancy?
nothing will happen.
Sheesh. Will someone please just indict Hillary Clinton so we don’t have to see Her Highness the Smug anymore?
Getting ready to pull the same shit on a different day.
Fromm CBS tweet:
“Are you worried you’ll be indicted?”
Christopher Steele tells @GStephanopoulos
in an exclusive interview he has not cooperated with special counsel Durham’s probe into the FBI’s investigation of alleged ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Translation: “I did not talk. I did not flip. I am not suicidal. Please don’t kill me.”
What about the story from the WSJ ( How lobbyists help Ex-Soviets woo Washington, April 17, 2007) written by GLENN SIMPSON and his wife, Mary Jacoby, describing the same scenario as the pee pee tape, but with different “actors”???
Highlighted by Dan Bongino last Friday 10/15. Looks like they just recycled the story when they decided to target Trump.
How much was Christopher Steele paid for this fiction he didn’t even create? Did the real originators of the plot think his British accent would lend credibility?
Looks like Clinton’s hired the right man to do their job.
Just stick with the story and we will get our people (Stephanopoulos) to help get you back in good standing.
Steele didn’t meet the fate of many Clinton associates.
So he was onboard always.
Stephanopoulos – the democrat privy cleaner.
Seriously? We don’t need more articles arguing all the same points that we know are garbage and lies. This guy is a CRIMINAL and participated in a COUP against an American president, he just needs electric shock treatment from an electric chair to straighten out his mental illness as does the rest of the main stream liars media.
Has anyone noticed how quickly and quietly James Comey just vanished into the Aether !
Curious if the FBI raid on Deripaska has anything to do with this latest media sensation…
Russia, Russia, Russia!
It’s going to be interesting.
The DS and un-IC are probably setting Deripaska as the mastermind and they all got played.
It’s not like the un-IC has not gotten it wrong (on purpose) in the past like weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
“Keep in mind, if the FBI is raiding Oleg’s house it is not to advance truth, it is to bury it.
Oleg represents a threat to the background of the Spygate operation and corrupt DOJ, DOJ-NSD, FBI and Deep State activity. Oleg knows too much. Chris Steele worked for Oleg.” -The Last Refuge
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/387625-mueller-may-have-a-conflict-and-it-leads-directly-to-a-russian-oligarch
>Deripaska’s lawyer said the Russian ultimately spent $25 million assembling a private search and rescue team that worked with Iranian contacts under the FBI’s watchful eye. Photos and videos indicating Levinson was alive were uncovered.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/23/israel-dilbert-matt-gaetz-513800
>Three days before the story broke in March that federal investigators were probing whether Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl, Novak began corresponding with Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams about the scandal. The two were pals on social media. Novak indicated to Adams he had inside knowledge of the probe and also suggested he was personally involved in an effort to get $25 million out of Gaetz’s wealthy father to help free an American hostage in Iran named Bob Levinson.
Have you made this connection yet? The same extortion team that successfully targeted Oleg Deripaska 4+ years ago in the midst of Russiagate, blackmailing him for $25 million to “rescue Bob Levinson,” tried the same blackmail approach against Matt Gaetz recently. Why would they have needed to control Deripaska back then? Why were they trying to control Gaetz now? You’re on the cusp of unravelling something big here.
That block of six pictures – if ever there were a portrait of a rogues gallery, this is it.