The Robert Mueller Investigation

[Captainant 28004]

1 minute ago, udaydanceparty said:

The piss dossier was opposition research and was the basis for the entire investigation getting started.

First of all, that's factually incorrect. If you think the basis for what's been going on was the dossier, then you are not very well informed and need to actually read instead of hearing what you want to hear from conservative media.

[hobbes2702 13171]

9 minutes ago, udaydanceparty said:

The piss dossier was opposition research and was the basis for the entire investigation getting started.  Then you had the average joe FBI agents do their job while others in the IC and a senile Senator with a brain tumor decided to leak information to the press. If it wasn't for Jake Tapper at CNN, the piss tape story would have never made it to the mainstream and you guys would have been doing something much more productive over the past 2 years other than furiously masturbating over political clickbait. 

Well your initial claim is false. Why should we listen to anything else you’ve said.

[Anastasis 23518]

19 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Well, that's just fucking stupid.  Donald Trump is far and away the single person most responsible for the election of Donald Trump.

I submit a revision to make explicit that which was implicit.  Outside of the two candidates themselves, James Comey (not my homey) is the single person most responsible for the election of Donald Trump. #mistakesweremade

[Lagunamadre 1975]

29 minutes ago, EMAWesome said:

So if someone makes a bogus claim that you diddled with kids at a school playground and the ensuing investigation finds no evidence of you doing this but does record you on video eating your own boogers that video should be made available to the public?  Might suck but them's the breaks?

In this hypothetical, Assuming the govt. couldn't prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, I think the public would be more interested in wether you had conversations about diddling kids or if a kid diddler, let's call him M. Jackson, offered you kids to diddle. I agree that booger eating videos should be kept private. Unless of course booger eating in this case means something like money laundering or tax evasion, in that case it should be referred to the appropriate department for further investigation. 

Although, it would seem a logical next step in America's goal of proving the movie Idocracy prophetic, that a video of Trump eating his own boogers surfaces. 

[jimmyjazz 46526]

13 minutes ago, EMAWesome said:

You want to know how I can tell who here hasn't read the piece put out by Matt Taibbi yet?

Dude.  Here is what's left after I remove the strike-thru:

Facts don’t matter anymore, the truth is The New York Times and Washington Post want you to believe it is

 

 

[Anastasis 23518]

Wonder what old Papadop is up to these days.  Oh right, book signing ceremonies.  Fucking of course.

 

Edited March 25, 2019 by Anastasis

[EMAWesome 101]

3 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Dude.  Here is what's left after I remove the strike-thru:

Facts don’t matter anymore, the truth is The New York Times and Washington Post want you to believe it is

 

 

Okay, I'll cop up to leaving out the word what between is and The.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

Just now, bad_teammate said:

If you read your own article, you will see that the way that Finland is fighting it is by doing exactly what I'm talking about.

“The best way to respond is less by correcting the information, and more about having your own positive narrative and sticking to it,” Jed Willard, director of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Center for Global Engagement at Harvard, told Foreign Policy.

Remove the negative conditions that make people desperate enough to believe in nonsense and they're less likely to believe the nonsense. Pay their teachers more and given them free college so they're better educated.

We should do that.  Along with emphasis on critical thinking and media literacy.   There are other things we can do like holding accountable the platforms and mediums that profit and enable these cyber subversivion campaigns.  

Again, this is ultimately a corruption issue both in the public and private sector.   Before a solution can be applied we should all come to a better understanding and agreement on the problem.  We haven’t got there yet.  I was hoping the Mueller investigation would assist in that and it did at least a little bit.  It’s the main reason I want the full report made public. 

If we can’t see exactly what the Kremlin did in 2016, how are we going to better defend in 2020?  It’s almost a national security imperative the public increases it’s awareness so 2016 never happens again.  Releasing the full Mueller report could go a long way in that effort.

[jimmyjazz 46526]

8 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

I submit a revision to make explicit that which was implicit.  Outside of the two candidates themselves, James Comey (not my homey) is the single person most responsible for the election of Donald Trump. #mistakesweremade

Heh.  Just trying to protect my reputation as being in the 99th percentile of anal retentive and pedantic surlys.

I do agree with your take.  The sad thing is, I believe he was trying to do what he thought was "right", but he lacks the gravitas and self-awareness of a Bob Mueller.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

Comey was fucked regardless of what he did.

[jimmyjazz 46526]

5 minutes ago, EMAWesome said:

Okay, I'll cop up to leaving out the word what between is and The.

. . . and the period.  (See previous admission regarding pedantry, along with the full disclosure that I was not only the editor of my HS newspaper for 2 years, but I was also the editor of the Missouri Boys' State newspaper, which was sorta like an 8.5 x 11 daily reporting of nothing.  Experience!)

[CowboyFred 1157]

1 hour ago, Zavala said:

Funny how life worked out for Jim

https://web.archive.org/web/20160716152116/http://www.hsbc.com/news-and-insight/2013/former-us-deputy-attorney-general-joins-hsbc-board

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/dec/11/hsbc-bank-us-money-laundering

You mean being an INDEPENDENT NON-EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER tasked with being a member of the Financial System Vulnerabilities Committee.  You know one is not like the other, right?

[Zavala 1384]

39 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Let's see the report and the evidence. There might not be any evidence. But I don't think anyone believes that.

You forget, the CIA and their buddies are going to spill ink on most of it ya goober.

[bad_teammate 13344]

1 minute ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

If we can’t see exactly what the Kremlin did in 2016, how are we going to better defend in 2020?  It’s almost a national security imperative the public increases it’s awareness so 2016 never happens again.  Releasing the full Mueller report could go a long way in that effort.

Releasing the Mueller Report would do nothing at all in either raising awareness about Russian active measures or teach us what we need to do to combat them. That's not what the report was about. It was not a details analysis of cybersecurity. Those already exist and they aren't hard to find.

The Russian effort to interfere in our election was pathetic. Social media posts and Facebook ads. Neither of those mean anything without a population primed to receive the message.

And how are we going to defend? How about by doing the thing from the article you quoted instead of just ignoring it because it didn't end up validating your desire to never leave the padded room you've built for yourself?

Create a positive narrative a stick to it.

Identify the actual problems of actual Americans. Tell them your specific plans to fix their problems. Ask them to join you in the fight to make sure those plans are passed into law. Do that over and over and over and over.

And if the brain worms scream at you loudly enough about Russia and you can't resist them, tell the people that the Russians are trying to stop them from getting the specific thing they deserve to fix the specific problems of their actual lives and then go back to the issues of their actual lives.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

8 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

Releasing the Mueller Report would do nothing at all in either raising awareness about Russian active measures or teach us what we need to do to combat them. That's not what the report was about. It was not a details analysis of cybersecurity. Those already exist and they aren't hard to find.

The Russian effort to interfere in our election was pathetic. Social media posts and Facebook ads. Neither of those mean anything without a population primed to receive the message.

And how are we going to defend? How about by doing the thing from the article you quoted instead of just ignoring it because it didn't end up validating your desire to never leave the padded room you've built for yourself?

Create a positive narrative a stick to it.

Identify the actual problems of actual Americans. Tell them your specific plans to fix their problems. Ask them to join you in the fight to make sure those plans are passed into law. Do that over and over and over and over.

And if the brain worms scream at you loudly enough about Russia and you can't resist them, tell the people that the Russians are trying to stop them from getting the specific thing they deserve to fix the specific problems of their actual lives and then go back to the issues of their actual lives.

Yeah, sorry if I disagree with you.  I don’t understand why you can’t pick a positive narrative to stick to on the front end and combat the threat on the back end. 

Allowing bad actors (not just Russia) to keep kicking us in the dick isn’t going to fix itself no matter how good your positive narrative is. You need a proactive combination addressing both IMO.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Hugo Stiglitz

[triplehorn 2664]

Barr’s 4 page letter is shaping up to be selective leaking to push a narrative.

That, and he’s usurping Congress’ role to deliberate the evidence against a sitting POTUS for possible indictment.  

Reeks of fish paper 

[Jack 51]

4 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Yeah, sorry if I disagree with you.  I don’t understand why you can’t pick a positive narrative to stick to on the front end and combat the threat on the back end. 

Allowing bad actors (not just Russia) to keep kicking us in the dick isn’t going to fix itself no matter how good your positive narrative is. You need a proactive combination addressing both IMO.

Personally, i'm more worried about China than Russia.  Our past 3 Presidents didn't exactly "confront" China in any way shape or form.

[Johnny Sack 8397]

47 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

This is what 95% of the public sees though.  I think the AG coming out with this before the full report really sealed the deal.  It was mentioned upthread somewhere, but this is a great example of Rs creating a situation that the Ds have to react to, instead of the other way around.

Dems created this entire bullshit farce situation because they are mindless children who couldn’t accept losing.  

[GW Hayduke 1953]

“Barr’s letter to Congress makes clear that there was substantial evidence supporting the possibility that the president obstructed justice—enough that Mueller did not feel he could draw a conclusion—but that Barr nonetheless concluded that prosecution was not warranted. By using the same language that Mueller used with respect to “establishing” coordination with Russia, Barr’s letter suggests the possibility that, rather than “no evidence” of collusion, Mueller did find such evidence—but similarly did not conclude it warranted a criminal prosecution. Clearing up this ambiguity is yet another reason why the Mueller report should be released promptly.”

https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-does-barr-letter-actually-say-about-collusion

[Captainant 28004]

2 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

Dems created this entire bullshit farce situation because they are mindless children who couldn’t accept losing.  

Care to back up that explosive claim that this is a "bullshit face situation" with specific evidence?

[SimonBolivar 10962]

1 minute ago, GW Hayduke said:

“Barr’s letter to Congress makes clear that there was substantial evidence supporting the possibility that the president obstructed justice—enough that Mueller did not feel he could draw a conclusion—but that Barr nonetheless concluded that prosecution was not warranted. By using the same language that Mueller used with respect to “establishing” coordination with Russia, Barr’s letter suggests the possibility that, rather than “no evidence” of collusion, Mueller did find such evidence—but similarly did not conclude it warranted a criminal prosecution. Clearing up this ambiguity is yet another reason why the Mueller report should be released promptly.”

https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-does-barr-letter-actually-say-about-collusion

As reported elsewhere it is really difficult to prove that he obstructed when there was no evidence to obstruct and also was there damage done to the case against him by his actions?  Can you name something that didn't happen or wasn't allowed to happen due to his obstruction? These are tough legal barriers to climb over for anyone much less POTUS.

[bad_teammate 13344]

9 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

Yeah, sorry if I disagree with you.  I don’t understand why you can’t pick a positive narrative to stick to on the front end and combat the threat on the back end.

"So what you do is pretty simple: you nominate and elect good people to institute those policies and then, in the course of their duties, they will also fight these far less important battles with Russia and online trolls."

Like that?

It literally doesn't even need to be part of the sales pitch, that's how unimportant it is. Don't even mention Russia at all. Every single Democratic candidate is going to have a better policy with regard to election interference. Literally every single one of them will appoint better staff and implement better security. All of them. There is no real difference between them on any of it.

Meanwhile, a public focus on Russia poisons discourse and distracts attention away from meaningful discussions about real issues. More specific to you, Hugo, is how you somehow bring up Russia in discussions of Democratic candidates. You have a brain disease.

[udaydanceparty 33]

42 minutes ago, hobbes2702 said:

Well your initial claim is false. Why should we listen to anything else you’ve said.

Care to explain what's false about my statement?

It is my understanding that the dossier was created as part of opposition research conducted by fusion GPS .  That research was paid for originally by Jeb Bush and then the Clinton Camp started paying them.  It was carried out by a former British spy who used his contacts in the Ukrainian and Russian governments to create the dossier. 

That's my basic understanding of how that document came into being.  If something is factually incorrect, i'm open to having my mind changed.

[GW Hayduke 1953]

2 minutes ago, SimonBolivar said:

As reported elsewhere it is really difficult to prove that he obstructed when there was no evidence to obstruct and also was there damage done to the case against him by his actions?  Can you name something that didn't happen or wasn't allowed to happen due to his obstruction? These are tough legal barriers to climb over for anyone much less POTUS.

There are a ton of unanswered questions. Was Barr’s conclusion of no obstruction based on his 2018 memo that argued any presidential action under Article II can never ever be obstruction?

[GRHorn 105]

3 hours ago, sachick said:

Trump won’t resign. Trump won’t be impeached. He’ll finish his term. We all know his team helped/encouraged Russia even it wasn’t actively coordinating. But he and probably his sons and Kushner will eventually be taken down for illegal business practices of some sort after the Trump presidency. Trump is a crook and has been for years. Now every aspect of his business is being looked into. He’ll eventually be fucked.

You’re setting yourself up for more disappointment. 

[Theo Huxtable 48]

1 hour ago, udaydanceparty said:

I took a long break from Surly specifically because of how hostile the politics forum was to conservatives that even slightly pushed back at this insane conspiracy theory.  I thought it was a waste of my time to argue since certain posters were going full on tin foil.  Now even after "Mueller Time!" completely clear the President and his campaign of collusion you are still grasping for straws.  Take the L.

Go back to your break. You were not missed.

[GRHorn 105]

4 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

"So what you do is pretty simple: you nominate and elect good people to institute those policies and then, in the course of their duties, they will also fight these far less important battles with Russia and online trolls."

Like that?

It literally doesn't even need to be part of the sales pitch, that's how unimportant it is. Don't even mention Russia at all. Every single Democratic candidate is going to have a better policy with regard to election interference. Literally every single one of them will appoint better staff and implement better security. All of them. There is no real difference between them on any of it.

Meanwhile, a public focus on Russia poisons discourse and distracts attention away from meaningful discussions about real issues. More specific to you, Hugo, is how you somehow bring up Russia in discussions of Democratic candidates. You have a brain disease.

I think he has the brain worms that Alex Jones talks about. 

[Captainant 28004]

3 minutes ago, udaydanceparty said:

Care to explain what's false about my statement?

It is my understanding that the dossier was created as part of opposition research conducted by fusion GPS .  That research was paid for originally by Jeb Bush and then the Clinton Camp started paying them.  It was carried out by a former British spy who used his contacts in the Ukrainian and Russian governments to create the dossier. 

That's my basic understanding of how that document came into being.  If something is factually incorrect, i'm open to having my mind changed.

It's been in the public domain that the Mueller investigation started from pulling threads from papadop. I linked a NYT article from 2017 earlier in this thread that you didn't read, so here it is again.

And while I'm at it, this is a decent breakdown of how trump got people like you to believe that the mueller probe was started because of the steele dossier.

 

But who am I kidding? You're not going to read this because you don't give a shit about anything other than your team vs everyone else

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

13 minutes ago, GW Hayduke said:

“Barr’s letter to Congress makes clear that there was substantial evidence supporting the possibility that the president obstructed justice—enough that Mueller did not feel he could draw a conclusion—but that Barr nonetheless concluded that prosecution was not warranted. By using the same language that Mueller used with respect to “establishing” coordination with Russia, Barr’s letter suggests the possibility that, rather than “no evidence” of collusion, Mueller did find such evidence—but similarly did not conclude it warranted a criminal prosecution. Clearing up this ambiguity is yet another reason why the Mueller report should be released promptly.”

https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-does-barr-letter-actually-say-about-collusion

Robert Litt formerly served as the General Counsel to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence under the Obama administration.

Seems like an impartial guy!

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

6 minutes ago, GW Hayduke said:

There are a ton of unanswered questions. Was Barr’s conclusion of no obstruction based on his 2018 memo that argued any presidential action under Article II can never ever be obstruction?

If there's no crime, there's no collusion. 

[RomaVicta 30149]

2 hours ago, suddenly shaggy said:

Lots of pages of talk about a report that very few people, none posting on here, have actually seen.

Congress needs to get the report and Mueller before them ASAP. 

It really is that simple. Others say it, but it does not deter the clouds of chaff being hurled up by the cult.

Please repeat this post on every page. It's the salient point of all of this chatter. 

[FondrenRoad 4378]

5 minutes ago, udaydanceparty said:

Care to explain what's false about my statement?

It is my understanding that the dossier was created as part of opposition research conducted by fusion GPS .  That research was paid for originally by Jeb Bush and then the Clinton Camp started paying them.  It was carried out by a former British spy who used his contacts in the Ukrainian and Russian governments to create the dossier. 

That's my basic understanding of how that document came into being.  If something is factually incorrect, i'm open to having my mind changed.

It was Fusion GPS.  It was initially paid for by Free Beacon.  Later Hillary hired Fusion GPS.  Don't think Jeb! ever had anything to do with it.  What does any of that have to do with the veracity of it?

The original FBI investigation into Trump began due to an Australian tip and had nothing to do with the dossier.

[GW Hayduke 1953]

6 minutes ago, Cheeseweasel said:

If there's no crime, there's no collusion. 

You might be trying to say “no crime, so no obstruction.” There has been plenty of crimes surrounding the russia investigations. 5 people sentenced to prison, 7 guilty pleas, 37 entities charged.

[RomaVicta 30149]

2 hours ago, Cheeseweasel said:

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that number is very high. Yes, people would still support him, but a % of the population thinks the earth is flat. I think the VAST majority of Republicans would turn on him if there was a "smoking gun" in the Mueller report. But I'm an optimist. 

You are an optimist. The electorate doesn't really need any more evidence to turn on Trump. His supporters wouldn't choose to see the smoking gun if it were placed under their noses and made them tear up.

The whole "smoking gun" standard was another ruse from Watergate that has been used by GOP administrations in every scandal since then. Howard Baker, among others, kept using the metaphor for overwhelming evidence as the standard for adequate evidence. The prisons would be just about empty if a smoking gun were needed to convict.

The equivalent of a smoking gun in Trump's various nefarious deeds would be a video (HD, of course) of him taking money from Putin or Russian oligarchs, shaking their hands then kissing their balls. Even then we'd hear the deplorables railing about how the supposedly tolerant left actually hates homosexuals.

Idiot World metastasizes like lily pads in a pond. Incremental at first and then an overwhelming leap overnight into complete infestation. The sun is setting. The night is dark and full of terrors. 

[udaydanceparty 33]

4 minutes ago, Captainant said:

It's been in the public domain that the Mueller investigation started from pulling threads from papadop. I linked a NYT article from 2017 earlier in this thread that you didn't read, so here it is again. 

And while I'm at it, this is a decent breakdown of how trump got people like you to believe that the mueller probe was started because of the steele dossier.

 

But who am I kidding? You're not going to read this because you don't give a shit about anything other than your team vs everyone else

I'm aware of the Papadopoulos angle in all of this.  Doesn't change what happened with the dossier.  Without the dossier, we don't have this special council.

[wildcat09 29454]

These trolls are so stupid they make me long for Chrispy. 

 

[Captainant 28004]

Just now, udaydanceparty said:

I'm aware of the Papadopoulos angle in all of this.  Doesn't change what happened with the dossier.  Without the dossier, we don't have this special council.

Again, that is factually incorrect. Please share what information you are basing this opinion off of, rather than just lobbing it at us and not defending your point.

[Lagunamadre 1975]

13 minutes ago, udaydanceparty said:

Care to explain what's false about my statement?

It is my understanding that the dossier was created as part of opposition research conducted by fusion GPS .  That research was paid for originally by Jeb Bush and then the Clinton Camp started paying them.  It was carried out by a former British spy who used his contacts in the Ukrainian and Russian governments to create the dossier. 

That's my basic understanding of how that document came into being.  If something is factually incorrect, i'm open to having my mind changed.

Your statement was that the Dossier led to the FBI counter-intelligence investigation. In May of 2016, Poppodopolis got drunk and told an Australian diplomat that Russia had incriminating info on Clinton (before that was public), the diplomat told the Australian equivalent of the FBI about said conversation, they in turn informed the FBI who in turn opened up an investigation in July of 2016. Steele finished his dossier in December of 2016 and it was published in January of 2017, months after the FBI had opened their counter-intelligence investigation. Hope that clears it up. 

Poppodopolis yapping about the Russians started the investigation. 

Trump firing Comey, in part because of the Russia Investigation, led to the start of the Special Council Investigation. 

No investigation would have been a dereliction of duty. We can now sleep easier knowing that justice has been served/is being served to those who broke the law. And those who didn't have been cleared. 

[RomaVicta 30149]

2 hours ago, udaydanceparty said:

Get help

Doctor heal thyself.

I do like the username. 

[Lagunamadre 1975]

1 minute ago, udaydanceparty said:

I'm aware of the Papadopoulos angle in all of this.  Doesn't change what happened with the dossier.  Without the dossier, we don't have this special council.

We don't have a special council if Trump doesn't fire Comey and then go on TV and say he did it because of "the whole Russia thing". Period. 

[GW Hayduke 1953]

3 minutes ago, udaydanceparty said:

I'm aware of the Papadopoulos angle in all of this.  Doesn't change what happened with the dossier.  Without the dossier, we don't have this special council.

Blahhh if Dotard hadn’t fired the FBI Director beacuSe of the “russia thing,” we wouldn’t have had special counsel. I’m amazed that someone would comment on a topic while knowing so little

[FondrenRoad 4378]

4 minutes ago, udaydanceparty said:

I'm aware of the Papadopoulos angle in all of this.  Doesn't change what happened with the dossier.  Without the dossier, we don't have this special council.

Wrong again.  The Comey firing during/following the Flynn investigation led to the Special Counsel.  The FBI was aware of the dossier, but the dossier had little to do with the investigation then or now.

[DDD Dad 14400]

1 hour ago, EMAWesome said:

You want to know how I can tell who here hasn't read the piece put out by Matt Taibbi yet?

Are you basing this on circumstantial evidence?

[Lagunamadre 1975]

6 minutes ago, GW Hayduke said:

Blahhh if Dotard hadn’t fired the FBI Director beacuSe of the “russia thing,” we wouldn’t have had special counsel. I’m amazed that someone would comment on a topic while knowing so little

It's astounding how dumb some people can be. 

General rule. If you are the President of the United State, Democrat or Republican, and the FBI has an active investigation into your actions, you will get a special council appointed if you fire the person in charge of that investigation. Every time. No ifs ands or buts. And that is a good thing. It is why our country is the envy of the world. 

Edited March 25, 2019 by Lagunamadre

[jdhorn92 1562]

Trump has a chance to take the high road here, now that this appears to be behind him.  Will he see this as an opportunity to re-set with the Dems?  Probably not, but he's got a chance to turn this in to a win.  Will he realize the absence of guilt does not mean complete innocence?  That's a big ask for a nimrod like him.   If he's the master poker player he claims to be, he'll use this to his advantage and come to the middle a bit. 

 

[Lagunamadre 1975]

Just now, jdhorn92 said:

Trump has a chance to take the high road here, now that this appears to be behind him.  Will he see this as an opportunity to re-set with the Dems?  Probably not, but he's got a chance to turn this in to a win.  Will he realize the absence of guilt does not mean complete innocence?  That's a big ask for a nimrod like him.   If he's the master poker player he claims to be, he'll use this to his advantage and come to the middle a bit. 

 

Nope. He is already claiming the people investigating him committed treason. Sadly, the release of the report (or summary at this point) is merely the beginning of another dark chapter in our history. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. 

[jimmyjazz 46526]

16 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

It was Fusion GPS.  It was initially paid for by Free Beacon.  Later Hillary hired Fusion GPS.  Don't think Jeb! ever had anything to do with it.

Jeb's campaign was said to have been the initial group that funded Fusion GPS' research.  It seems that has been debunked, and that (as you say) it was Washington Free Beacon.

[Gap03 3350]

3 minutes ago, Lagunamadre said:

Nope. He is already claiming the people investigating him committed treason. Sadly, the release of the report (or summary at this point) is merely the beginning of another dark chapter in our history. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. 

And you know we're going to be barraged by Trump and his cronies with "the Fake News is the enemy of the American People" at least every week from here for the next decade because they, for some odd reason, thought that he was acting like a foreign agent.  He's going to take advantage of the Barr summary to do his damnedest to destroy the 4th estate forever. 

[Anastasis 23518]

It was a Rubio supporter and owner of washington free beacon who initiated it. Steele didn't come on until after the Clinton campaign started funding the work through Perkins Coie.  The dossier was used to bolster a fraudulent FISA application to monitor Carter Page.  There are ongoing OIG investigations related to FISA abuses associated with the investigation. If Trump had any balls, he would declassify all the filings. As far as initiation of the investigation, Papadop claims that Mifsud and Downer were assets deployed by Western intelligence agencies (Clinton supporters BOO!), and that same said agencies are lobbying the Trump administration against declassifying the associated FISA filings.  He'll tell you all about it in his new book being released tomorrow, pre-order @ $30.00 in hardback, free signing event available. 

[wildcat09 29454]

Pop's book is coming out the same day as Tiamat's Wrath? 

Hmmmm, decisions, decisions.