On the recordJanuary 10, 2018
Character assassination is Donald Trump's favorite trick when people make him look bad. This month, Trump and his allies have been desperately smearing the authors of the infamous dossier, which exposes disturbing facts about Trump's Russia connections. By attacking Chris Steele and Fusion GPS, they are trying to divert attention from the damning content of the dossier and also to impugn the FBI for launching its investigation. Here is the problem: the dossier didn't start the FBI investigation. It was a Trump policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, boasting to an Australian diplomat that Russia had stolen emails to interfere in our election. That was 2 months before those stolen emails were put online, and that smacks of collusion. Thankfully, our Australian allies shared this information with the FBI and the investigation began. The dossier came along and corroborated what the FBI had already heard. There is another problem with this smear campaign: It wasn't just the FBI that took the dossier seriously. Senator John McCain deemed it credible enough to turn it over to the FBI. This is a serious document, corroborated by a host of other evidence, and the truth is coming out, Mr. Speaker. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Faso). Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President. ____________________
