carrying out an operation with the trump campaign s help to tilt the u.s. election. a plot steele had been told was ordered by vladimir putin. senator john mccain figures into the story that the post lays out as well. the post detailing efforts by steele to share his concerns with republicans who shared his we wariness about russia. i call those the good old days. the meeting was arranged with john mccain who was, quote, visibly shocked by the allegations. let s get to all of this with the panel, nbc s ken dilanian, assistant director for counterterrorism now an msnbc national security analyst, nick, jason and charlie are also still here. let me start with you, frank. and this idea of christopher steele sort of going about his life now in the private sector. he s been described to me by u.s. government sources, by british government sources as someone whose credibility on the question of russia has never come into question during his entire career in and out of
weapon. he was now being summoned to rome where he spoeent hours in a discreet location telling american officials, some of whom had flown in from the united states, about his findings. the russians had damaging information about trump s personal behavior and finances that could be used to pressure the gop nominee. what s more, the kremlin is carrying out an operation with the campaign s help to tilt the u.s. election a plot steele said was ordered by vladimir putin. the fbi investigators treated steele as a peer, a russia expert so well trusted he assisted the justice department on past case, he provided briefing materials for british prime ministers and at least one u.s. president. during intense questioning that day in rome, they alluded to some of their own findings of ties between russia and the trump campaign. so this is new information. by this point, by the fall, september or october, 2016, before the election, christopher steele had been a key source for
the campaign s help to tilt the u.s. election a plot steele said was ordered by vladimir putin. the fbi investigators treated steele as a peer, a russia expert so well trusted he assisted the justice department on past cases, he provided briefing materials for british prime ministers and at least one u.s. president. during intense questioning that day in rome, they alluded to some of their own findings of ties between russia and the trump campaign. so this is new information. by this point, by the fall, september or october, 2016, before the election, christopher steele had been a key source for the fbi in its investigation of corruption in international soccer. that was an investigation that led to 14 soccer executives getting charged in the united states. in private practice as an investigator in 2014 and 2015 he passed along intelligence he gathered on russia and ukraine to the u.s. state department.