Summary: The FBI is seriously looking into a second dossier that claims Trump has ties to Russia.
A second memo about Trump’s relationship with Russia during the 2016 presidential election is being reviewed by the FBI. This memo was composed by former journalist Cody Shearer, according to The Guardian.
The first dossier was written by former British spy, Christopher Steele, and the second memo reportedly is similar in content.
The first dossier claimed that President Donald Trump had deep ties to Russia and that the Kremlin helped him win the 2016 Presidential Election. It was publicly released last year, and its claims remain unverified.
The second dossier is just as controversial as the first, especially because of its author. Shearer was close to the Clinton White House in the 1990s, according to The Guardian. His memo was originally viewed with skepticism because of his political affiliation and his lack of espionage experience, but now the FBI is seriously reviewing his allegations. He had turned in his memo in October of 2016.
According to The Guardian, Steele had turned in Shearer’s work as evidence that his memo was backed by another source. However, Steele would not endorse Shearer or his claims.
Both memos said that Trump was compromised by the Russias in 2013 when he visited the country and had a lurid night with prostitutes. Steele’s dossier, which was famously published by Buzzfeed, claimed that Trump had enjoyed “golden showers” during this tryst, a term that refers to being peed on during sex.
The seriousness that the FBI is taking this dossier is alarming Trump, who is being investigated for possible obstruction of justice by the FBI.
Trump is currently in the center of a probe about his relationship with Russia, and the investigation is led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller recently said he intended to interview Trump in the next few weeks, and Trump stated that he would be willing to do it under oath.
The two memos have been met with ire from Republicans, who state they are biased. Steele was hired through research firm Fusion GPS through the law firm Perkins Coie by Marc Elias, a lawyer for the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee. Shearer has a longstanding relationship with the Clinton family.
“We know now without a shadow of a doubt that the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, paid Fusion GPS and Steele to acquire this dossier, which required colluding with Russian operatives and Russian nationals,” Representative Ron DeSantis, a Republican from Florida, told Breitbart.
Republicans have drafted their own memo, written by Representative Devin Nunes from California. In the Republican memo, they claim that the Trump-Russia investigation is a witch-hunt started from the Steele dossier, which was contracted by a Clinton supporter.
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