The Telegraph, the British newspaper that's not exactly the New York Times, broke the story yesterday that Christopher Steele continued to work with the FBI and supplied a second Trump dossier -- including more claims of sex tapes and Russian collusion.
The emergence of the 35-page dossier, written between June and December 2016, did not it appears signal an end to the former MI6 officer’s working relationship with the FBI and continued after Mr Trump's inauguration in January 2017.
The Telegraph understands that Mr Steele, through his company Orbis Business Intelligence, continued supplying raw intelligence to the federal authorities in the US.
The second dossier contains raw intelligence that makes further claims of Russian meddling in the US election and also references claims regarding the existence of further sex tapes. The second dossier is reliant on separate sources to those who supplied information for the first reports.
The fact the FBI continued to receive intelligence from Mr Steele, who ran MI6’s Russia desk from 2006 to 2009 before setting up Orbis, is potentially significant because it shows his work was apparently still being taken seriously after Mr Trump took hold of the reins of power.
"Raw intelligence" is basically unverified gossip. Which does not mean it's not true -- but it does mean it's not substantiated.
The Telegraph reports Steele told the FBI in a 2017 interview that his primary "sub-source" for the dossier was no longer active at the time of the interview, but that another main agent network was then starting to get what he called "good information."
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, "intelligence gathered by Steele for his second dossier is understood to include further details of Manafort’s alleged Russian contacts."
You remember, the "fake" Russian collusion?
