There is no evidence the tape exists, and Trump has denied the alleged incident taking place. In January 2017, CNN reported top intelligence officials presented then-President Trump with claims from the Steele Dossier. Steele reaffirmed his confidence in the most controversial claim in the unverified dossier – that Russia had video of Trump watching prostitutes urinate in a hotel suite, according to BuzzFeed News, which published the dossier in full. Stephanopoulos asked if the source was still alive. Steele said that confidential sources who are uncovered may seek to “downplay and underestimate” what they’ve previously said, suggesting that’s what happened with his sourceĪsked if something had happened to any of his sources after the dossier was disclosed, Steele said, “Yes, but I can’t really go there, I’m afraid.” In the interview, Steele insisted the information from his sources was credible, despite the FBI being unable to verify the salacious details in the dossier. The report found the FBI’s Russia investigation was started properly, but it raised serious questions about Steele’s sources for the dossier, including the fact that his primary source told the FBI they may have talked about Trump’s alleged sexual activities “in jest” and that the tape was “rumor and speculation.” The FBI’s use of Steele’s dossier to obtain a foreign surveillance warrant on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page was the subject of a scathing Justice Department inspector general report released in 2019. And in much intelligence work, you never get to the point where you’re 99% certain of the evidence to secure a conviction.” Mueller, Steele argued, “was working to beyond-reasonable-doubt-level of evidence in criminal cases and prosecutions. “I stand by the work we did, the sources that we had, and the professionalism which we applied to it,” Steele said. Steele reinforced his belief that most of the claims made in the dossier are accurate. Mueller’s report also concluded that another allegation Steele made – that former Trump attorney Michael Cohen traveled to Prague in 2016 to meet with Russian officials – was untrue. Many of the claims, such as the so-called “pee tape,” were never proven, despite the FBI’s efforts to verify salacious allegations and years of congressional investigators looking into the claims involving the former president and Russia. Steele’s unverified dossier became one of the most controversial aspects of the FBI’s investigation into Trump and Russia that led to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “I think the first and most important (reason) is that the problems we identified back in 2016 haven’t gone away, and arguably have actually got worse, and I thought it was important to come and set the record straight,” Steele said. Why speak out now?” host George Stephanopoulos asked. “Most of the world first heard your name about five years ago, but you stayed silent up until now. In a clip from an ABC News documentary released Monday, Steele said he decided to sit down for an interview now because he wanted to “set the record straight” about his role in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, the man behind the “Steele Dossier” that claimed Russian officials held compromising information on former President Donald Trump, defended the claims made in the dossier in his first on-camera interview since it was revealed in 2017.
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