As the Daily Caller recently reported, dossier author Christopher Steele is the subject of a defamation suit by Alfa Bank, the Russian bank that supposedly had a secret communications channel with the Trump Organization. Court transcripts show that that now-debunked hot tip came from Michael Sussmann, a lawyer at Perkins Coie, the law firm that hired Steele on behalf of its client, the Hillary Clinton campaign.
NEW: Christopher Steele revealed previously undisclosed meetings with DNC and Clinton campaign lawyers in 2016.
One of those meetings explains why Steele began investigating the now-debunked lead on Alfa Bank. https://t.co/SYkklDOL0H
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) April 28, 2020
Aaron Maté decided to take a look back at the reporting at the time.
Remember when the Russiagate chatrooms known as Slate, NYT, The New Yorker, MSNBC etc promoted the conspiracy theory that the Trump campaign secretly communicated w/ Russia's Alfa Bank? You'll be shocked to learn where that one came from: the Clinton camp! https://t.co/P9k3Bm5sqL https://t.co/mWYHkrxciz
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) April 29, 2020
Christopher Steele, the ex-British spy whose claim to fame is supplying US intelligence officials & credulous media hacks w/ a dossier of embarrassing conspiracy theories that kept them busy for 3 years, says a DNC/Clinton lawyer gave him the brilliant idea about Trump-Alfa Bank: pic.twitter.com/VMubtvvm70
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) April 29, 2020
.@FranklinFoer got the ball rolling on the Alfa Bank theory in Slate back in October 2016. (https://t.co/XW4rwM0OxZ). Dexter Filkins picked up the baton for the New Yorker two years later. Have either of them acknowledged that their story was debunked? pic.twitter.com/vXNoOjWGmE
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) April 29, 2020
Here's @NatashaBertrand on the Alfa Bank story, October 2018: "I mean, what more evidence do you need? It’s very, very obvious." pic.twitter.com/JKr3IYlXML
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) April 29, 2020
Here’s The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway with the smackdown on Politico’s Natasha Bertrand.
Bertrand was still pretending to believe (or worse, believing) that idiotic Alfa Bank disinfo years after it was 1st peddled by Clinton operatives to fellow partisans in media. Now funneling Democratic oppo at Politico, she sure earned her "Fusion Natasha" nickname. https://t.co/bIgYvNsBwo
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) April 29, 2020
So Steele’s memo accusing Alfa Bank of nefariously connecting Trump with Putin was based entirely on what DNC and Clinton attorneys told him? This story got so much play back in 2016. Amazing.
— Kerry Troup (@kerryktroup) April 29, 2020
Sure seems pretty sure of herself
— Marky Mark (@barron160) April 29, 2020
The best liars always do.
— John White (@JJWhit2020) April 29, 2020
Watch her face. She is really enjoying the attention. She has to fight to keep her smug smile from appearing.
And where’s her retraction and apology?
— Mint (@Babbas70) April 29, 2020
Love the scoffing and condescending laughter you always hear from Democrats when they pretend to be reporting about something “obvious” or “settled”.
— scott siemsen (@skotea73) April 29, 2020
Fusion natasha blocked me because I complimented her ability to leverage Russia gate into a major role in journalism
— Kevin Brown (@KevinKay500bee) April 29, 2020
It’s remarkable how shamelessly @NatashaBertrand continues to comment and report on intelligence items when she perpetuated “obvious” misinformation.
Also, so annoying and self-unaware when ppl reference things like “occam’s razor” in an attempt to seem cerebral…
— Serena W (@SerenaWindsor_) April 29, 2020
The younger generations of “journalists” are in the business for narcissistic reasons – they need to be seen and heard, loved and followed. They are activists with agendas, disseminators of disinformation to feed their narratives and validate their worldview.
— Ryan Coyne (@thecryptocoyne) April 29, 2020
And this is why the media is the #EnemyOfThePeople
— Cindy b⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Cindybinmo) April 29, 2020
She *is* Russian disinformation.
— Bacon & More (@BaconMore1) April 29, 2020
Fusion Collusion GPS.
— SlippinJoeB (@b_slippin) April 29, 2020
Operation Mockingbird in full effect……..CIA mouthpiece, and Brennan tool. Nothing more.
— ⭐️⭐️⭐️WWG1WGA⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@trumps_all) April 29, 2020
"Earned" her Fusion Natasha nickname just reminded me… Are we ever going to find out who the "journos" are that were paid by Fusion GPS to print fake news in order to mislead the public?
— The MeisterLine (@The_MeisterLine) April 29, 2020
And not a single one of them has come forward after those stories have been debunked to acknowledge how wrong they were.
You have every right to stand up and say 'I told you so' to every one of them. I usually discourage people from doing that but at this point, it is your duty.— Amau Thomas (@AmauThomas) April 29, 2020
Any REAL journalist would be fuming, now knowing they were played for a fool, becoming the very "Russian disinfo" American they were warning us about.
Nope, zero shame. Zero accountability. Zero effort to seek the truth. #pathetic
— Jason Zorich (@f1fan6735) April 29, 2020
No, it’s up to the “right-wing media” like The Daily Caller to actually exhume this stuff and show how it was all debunked. We’ll never hear about it again from the mainstream news media. The Mueller investigation didn’t lead to President Trump’s removal from office, so it serves no purpose now.
Related:
Daily Caller: Christopher Steele told court his email accounts were ‘wiped’ of correspondence regarding the dossier https://t.co/esY202Pl7e
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 24, 2020
Join the conversation as a VIP Member