The founders of the research firm Fusion GPS take to the New York Times op/ ed page to confirm the efforts by rancid, party- before- country Republicans in Congress and right- wing media to protect unhinged un- indicted co- conspirator Donald "Rump" Trump:
In the year since the publication of the so-called Steele dossier — the collection of intelligence reports we commissioned about Donald Trump’s ties to Russia — the president has repeatedly attacked us on Twitter. His allies in Congress have dug through our bank records and sought to tarnish our firm to punish us for highlighting his links to Russia. Conservative news outlets and even our former employer, The Wall Street Journal, have spun a succession of mendacious conspiracy theories about our motives and backers. [snip]
Republicans have refused to release full transcripts of our firm’s testimony, even as they selectively leak details to media outlets on the far right. It’s time to share what our company told investigators.
We don’t believe the Steele dossier was the trigger for the F.B.I.’s investigation into Russian meddling.(*) As we told the Senate Judiciary Committee in August, our sources said the dossier was taken so seriously because it corroborated reports the bureau had received from other sources, including one inside the Trump camp.
The intelligence committees have known for months that credible allegations of collusion between the Trump camp and Russia were pouring in from independent sources during the campaign. Yet lawmakers in the thrall of the president continue to wage a cynical campaign to portray us as the unwitting victims of Kremlin disinformation.Please read the entire piece to get the context of the Steele dossier as but one chapter in the book implicating Rump in potentially criminal and treasonous dealings with Russia.
(*) In fact, it appears that the drunken babbling of Rump aide George Papadopoulos to Australian diplomats was what caused the chain of events leading to the FBI's investigation.
