The Guardian: The FBI Has A Second Dossier On Trump-Russia Collusion

Wait a minute; there’s a second dossier on Russia-Trump collusion? That’s what The Guardian is reporting today. When former MI6 operative Christopher Steele, the man who compiled the Trump dossier, which was really a Democrat-funded opposition research project contracted out to the firm Fusion GPS by the Hillary campaign, dropped off his files to the FBI, he reportedly gave them another memo by Cody Shearer in October of 2016. Shearer is a Clinton political operative. A source with knowledge of the documents told the publication that the bureau is still verifying its contents, which means that there could be some parts of it that might be true or raise red flags:

The second memo was written by Cody Shearer, a controversial political activist and former journalist who was close to the Clinton White House in the 1990s.

Unlike Steele, Shearer does not have a background in espionage, and his memo was initially viewed with scepticism, not least because he had shared it with select media organisations before the election.

However, the Guardian has been told the FBI investigation is still assessing details in the ‘Shearer memo’ and is pursuing intriguing leads.

One source with knowledge of the inquiry said the fact the FBI was still working on it suggested investigators had taken an aspect of it seriously.

It raises the possibility that parts of the Steele dossier, which has been derided by Trump’s supporters, may have been corroborated by Shearer’s research, or could still be.

[…]

The Shearer memo was provided to the FBI in October 2016.

It was handed to them by Steele – who had been given it by an American contact – after the FBI requested the former MI6 agent provide any documents or evidence that could be useful in its investigation, according to multiple sources.

The Guardian was told Steele warned the FBI he could not vouch for the veracity of the Shearer memo, but that he was providing a copy because it corresponded with what he had separately heard from his own independent sources.

Among other things, both documents allege Donald Trump was compromised during a 2013 trip to Moscow that involved lewd acts in a five-star hotel.

The Shearer memo cites an unnamed source within Russia’s FSB, the state security service. The Guardian cannot verify any of the claims.

Shearer is not a former intelligence operative, but he does have a rather large Rolodex of sources. It’s also unknown if the Hillary campaign was interested in getting their hands on this second document. So, while there is nothing explosive here, with regards to confirming aspects of the Trump dossier by Steele, there is another question about a second piece of paper relating to the rapidly dying narrative that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians during the 2016 election. If Congress has questions, this will be added to the pile, along with the nature of the original dossier itself, its funding, and whether it was used to spy on the Trump campaign via FISA warrants. Was it corroborated prior to securing the warrants? Also, there’s the whole saga relating to FBI agent Peter Strzok and bureau lawyer Lisa Page, with whom he was having an extramarital affair, and their stream of anti-Trump, pro-Hillary texts that were sent during two sensitive investigations: the Hillary Clinton email probe and the initial FBI counterintelligence investigation that was looking into possible collusion. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who removed Strzok once he found out about the texts last summer, now heads that investigation.

Last night, the House Intelligence Committee voted to make a four-page memo alleging egregious FISA abuses public. Democrats have objected, saying the document is biased, cannot be given context due to being based on classified information, and a political ploy to undermine the FBI. The committee also voted to release the Democrats’ memo on the matter to the full House for review. The Department of Justice said the memo’s release would be a reckless exercise that could endanger national security, though they had no qualms about leaking portions of it to The New York Times yesterday. Also, we found out that FBI Director Chris Wray reviewed the memo on Sunday. So, this memo’s release is reckless, but someone at FBI/DOJ is leaking pieces of it to the press. Also, the DOJ has all the documents that the memo cites, so why do they need to review it. They’ve been stonewalling the congressional committees for months. It’s all part of this silly game played between Congress and the DOJ, in which the latter is saying to tell its oversight body that they have the power to say what can and cannot be released or read. That’s not how this works. President Trump has five days to decide whether to block the memo's release, but by all indications, he wants the memo to be made public.