President Donald Trump implied Tuesday that the FBI used the infamous Steele dossier as the basis for “going after” his 2016 presidential campaign staff.
WOW, @foxandfrlends “Dossier is bogus. Clinton Campaign, DNC funded Dossier. FBI CANNOT (after all of this time) VERIFY CLAIMS IN DOSSIER OF RUSSIA/TRUMP COLLUSION. FBI TAINTED.” And they used this Crooked Hillary pile of garbage as the basis for going after the Trump Campaign!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2017
The dossier, which Buzzfeed published in January 2017, purported to draw links between members of the Trump campaign and the Russian government. The dossier also included salacious claims about the president’s alleged sexual habits and was assembled by an ex-British spy named Christopher Steele.
Washington D.C. based opposition research firm Fusion GPS arranged the dossier, which was originally funded by the Washington Free Beacon during the Republican presidential primary. The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee then assumed responsibility for the dossier’s funding throughout the remainder of the election. The federal investigation into possible collusion with the Russian government did not begin until after the Democratic party began funding the dossier.
The FBI is said to have used the dossier as the basis for probing possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. The dossier was also reportedly used by the FBI as evidence to obtain a warrant against former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page.
