Allegations made against them in the document. The three russians are the same guys that previously sued buzz feed. Buzz feed was the first Media Organization to publish the dossier in january. They sued buzz feed before and now this week suing fusion gps, the company that paid for the dossier and suing fusion for allegedly not taking sufficient care with that document in the first place which ultimately led to buzz feed publishing. So, you know, its a high bar to prove libel in this country. And serious litigants dont purr sioux pursue libel lawsuits in this country all that often. In part, because youre opening yourself up to your liable lawsuit becoming a vehicle to investigate whether or not any of the charges made against you might have a kernel of truth to them. The way that libel is litigated in this country, it can be a dangerous legal status if you have anything. It doesnt mean there is never a successful libel suit but they can be means of opening up controversial topics and putting a spotlight on people that want to sue that lawsuit may be an interesting source of information about the allegations in the trump dossier as time goes on. That lawsuit filed this week could end up being important down the road. Stick a pin in that. Regardless of that lawsuit, the dossier is obviously already radically. In part because it concludes tabloid about trumps behavior when he was just a businessman operating in more importantly its controversial document does overall the overall point of the dossier is that it describes a well developed conspiracy between trump world and russian intelligence agencies as intelligence agencies were taking all sorts of different actions to try to benefit election. The dossier overall regardless of any of its individual claims, the overall argument is that there was collusion. There was a conspiracy of cooperation between trump world and the russian leadership while the russian leadership was directing the campaign to have russia influence our election. And in terms of the specific claims of the dossier, some of them are contested by the people who are named in the dossier including by three russians over its publication. The dossier as a whole is routinely dismissed by the white house as a complete, judiciary Trump Campaign in russia. Senator had enough of the dossier. He engaged in a months long crusade to try to portray the dossier itself as the russia scandal. Hes tried to impugn anything that had anything to do with creating that dossier or anybody whose ever cited it or anybody whose ever used it as a basis of investigation. Some of the most basic stuff hasnt been be prucha out by any subsequent reporting. There are parts of the dossier that really have been proven out, dossiers russian attack except the dossier was right about it months before. For example, before there was any public reporting behind russia being the entity and hacking and stealing of documents that describes hacking operations and those thefts. The steel dossier had that before there was any public source reporting on it. Before reporting from the New York Times in a very belated admission from the Trump Organization proved that President Trump in fact pursued a trump tower moscow project during the Campaign Months before that ever became publicly known, it was in the dossier. Christopher steel in the dossier described trump exploring the real estate sector in russia including moscow. Before anybody had any proof that russian government sources directly offered derogatory information about Hillary Clinton to the Trump Campaign before the New York Times first to report about the meeting at trump tower were the top officials from the Trump Campaign showed up in person for a meeting because they have been promised russian government information that would make Hillary Clinton look terrible. Months before we learned about that trump tower meeting where they showed up to get the Hillary Clinton dirt, months before that, Christopher Steel conspiracy with the Trump Campaign. Providing the Trump Campaign with derogatory information. So a lot of this he had done to rights. A lot of this that seemed nuts when we read this published in january since then has been reported out and proven. So the Christopher Steel dossier was produced by this British Intelligence agent by the campaign. It was First Published openly in january by buzz feed. It has been the subject of incredible scandal and efforts but parts of it is proving out. Robert muellers inquiry has taken over the work happening at the fbi to try to corroborate the dossier and follow up the claims. That was first. That was last night tonight, then tonight cnn was first to report and nbc has confirmed it. Cnn was first to report that bob mullers team has interviewed the former British Intelligence officer that wrote the dossier. Christopher steele. Counsel and mullers investigators met with british spy whose dossier and alleged russian efforts to aid the trump administration. Spawned months of investigations that have hobbled the trump administration. Quote, the fbi and u. S. Intelligence Committee Last year took the steele dossier more seriously than they at first acknowledged. And sounds look at this, quote, the intelligence the cia and steels research seriously enough they kept it out in a report released in january on russian meddling in the election in order to not say divulge which parts of the dossier they had corroborated and how. This is interesting. It is one thing to say they took it more seriously than people think. This is specific and interesting. Right . You put this together with marks report and what we got is Robert Mueller tracking down allegations made in the dossier. Muellers team meeting with krystopher steele and this report that the fbi and cia took care after internal debates, took care to not explicitly discuss the dossier. To not explicitly include mention of the dossier when they reported on russian meddling in the election and the reason they didnt include the dossier in those reports is specifically because they had corroborated some of the claims in the dossier and if they were going to put the claims and if they were going to mention the dossier in their reporting, they would ultimately have to explain how they corroborated it, how they figured out that what Christopher Steele said in that dossier was correct. However, they did that, however they corroborated what they corroborated was too sensitive to tell, say, donald trump. So they didnt write it down. They briefed out going president obama and incoming president elect trump in person directly about the fact that this dossier existed. But even though the dossier apparently is part of how they came to understand the russian meddling in the election, when it came time to produce their report about the russians meddling in the election, they didnt include the dossier in that because any classified version of that report would have to include how they knew the dossier was true. Quote, in the weeks before the u. S. Intelligence Community Published a january report detailing russian meddling efforts in the 2016 election, top officials at the fbi, cia and director of National Intelligence office discussed including parts in the official intelligence document. Intelligence had quote concerns about that. Quote, if that report included the dossier allegations, the Intelligence Community would have to say which agency corroborated and how. That would compromise sources and methods including information shared by foreign intelligence services. So there is is this dossier saying that the Trump Campaign and the russians were in cahoots involved in a conspiracy of operation to help put trump put a foreign thumb on the scale to get trump in office. You got to brief trump on how you found out what parts of that were true . Who might he tell once you told him . Okay. So in the end, they didnt put what they had learned from the dossier in their unclassified or classified report to protect the methodology they used to prove it. All right. They were trying to protect the fact the dossier had proven out when they checked it out, but parts of it at least proved out when they checked it out and so now bob muller is in charge of checking out anymore and according first to cnn and now confirmed by nbc, bob muller and investigators met as part of the social counsel investigation. So last night cnn tonight and nbc confirming and now we right here can add to the reporting on this subject, as well. Yesterday afternoon, richard burr and mark warner, top on the Intelligence Committee gave what they described as an update on the investigation into the election and the question of whether or not there was Trump Campaign collusion. The senator said they had been able to thoroughly check out the circumstances surrounding Donald Trumps big prorussia Foreign Policy speech at the may flower hotel last year. They said they have been able to thoroughly check out the circumstances the Trump Campaign insisted on changing checking out the Christopher Steel dossier. They have been able to follow but we hit a brick wall there. As it relates to the steel dossier, unfortunately the committee hit a wall. We have on several occasions made attempts to contact mr. Steel to meet with mr. Steel to include personally the vice chairman and myself as two individuals making that connection. Those offers that have gone unaccepted. The committee cannot really decide the credibility of the dossier without understanding things like who paid for it . Who are your sources and subsources . Were investigating a very expansive Russian Network of interference in u. S. Elections. And though we have been incredibly enlightened at our ability to rebuild backwards, the steel dossier up to a certain date getting past that point is somewhat impossible. And i say this because i dont think were going to find the intelligence products that unlock that key to pre june of 2016. My hope is mr. Steel will make a decision to meet with either mark and i or the committee or both so that we can hear his side of it versus for us to depict in our findings what his intent or what his actions were. And i say that to you but i also say it to chris steel. So thats the chairman of the Intelligence Committee yesterday saying there is a brick wall here explaining to the press what is going on about them not being able to talk to Christopher Steel about this dossier but saying im saying this to you as the press, ill saying it to you, too, Christopher Steele. Its interesting in connecticut text in terms of what is happening in washington with investigating the scandal. You have the republican of the Judiciary Committee trying to say that the dossier itself is a scandal and inherently dubious or fake somehow maybe is definitely implying and sometimes flat out alleging anybody associated with it is somehow in trouble and should have to answer for actions. In the other Senate Committee investigating the scandal, the republican chairman there doesnt describe the dossier as a scandal but basically describing it as a mystery here. Well never get to the bottom of this. The credibility of the dossier will never be established because we cant speak to the author. Its all unknown and will remain unknown. Well never understand whether any of this is real because we cant investigate it. That claim falls short on two fronts. Christopher steel is reportedly talking to the muller investigators. If there are questions to ask Christopher Steele about the dossier, hes talking to american investigators about it and special counsels office. The other way the fell short is the way we report. Christopher steele relates there is no brick wall that Senate Investigator haves run up against trying to investigate the dossier or speak with Christopher Steele. Associate of steele tells us in fact, very recently in late september Christopher Steele in london relaid to washington through this associate that mr. Steel in fact would be happy to meet with senator richard burr and senator mark warner. Apparently senators burr and warner had requested as they said in the briefing yesterday requested to meet with Christopher Steele the answer from Christopher Steele through this associate was yes, yes, i will meet with you. The next step as they understood it was a date. The associate who relayed this offer to me, Christopher Steel was surprised to hear senator burr say full avenues of communication had been cut off with Christopher Steele and a brick wall had been hit and there was no way to get him to answer these questions. So we reached out to the senate Intelligence Committee, to the chairman and Vice President tonight and they did give us a statement in response to the reporting from us. They gave us an interesting statement that doesnt refute what our source told us but let me read you what they said, quote, the committee made multiple requests to meet with mr. Steel over the last nine months including out reach to his attorneys open to any credible offer to meet with mr. Steel whether in washington or in london. And what were hearing from the steele side of the equation is that mr. Steele is happy to meet with senators burr and warner. Picking a date. So there may be a continuing political interest in washington in trying to make the Christopher Steele dossier seem like a scandal or seem like an unplumbale depth that well never be able to understand and nobody will ever be able to investigate. Well never know if any of it is true. I get the political drive to come to one of those two conclusions or maybe both. But in reality, based mostly on open source reporting from the American Media in reality, a, a bunch of the dossier has proven to be true. B, the fbi and cia have reportedly validated parts of it as true and have apparently used it as the basis of some of their ongoing investigation, c, the special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the dossier including interviewing Christopher Steele about it. And d, Senate Investigators apparently can meet with Christopher Steele if they want to. Even if the republican chairman of the Intelligence Committee yesterday said otherwise. So republicans are obviously under a lot of pressure to wrap this thing up. Trump Campaign Manager steve bannon left the white house but from his new position as a person who gets interviewed about the white house, which is itself funny, steve bannon made clear the only problem related to russia and the president ial election is that republicans in washington havent yet blocked the investigation into what russia did. Its Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan have allowed three there is three investigative committees on capitol hill. They have full subpoena power. They are going after President Trump yeah. They are going after him every day. The problem with trying to stop these investigations into what happened with russia and the Trump Campaign is that we keep finding new stuff that makes the investigation seem warranted and worthwhile. Right . Some of that is coming within the investigative process but a lot of it is coming from the media where hard core investigative reporting and free press is turning up evidence to say these investigations should be turned off. The president s response to even this latest news from the senate Intelligence Committee is that the thing, the senate Intelligence Committee ought to be investigating is the news media in this country. That tells you a lot about the attitudes of this administration towards anything it perceives as a threat but tells you absolutely nothing about hour understanding of the scandal will continue to progress. Because the investigations are not stopping and the reach in the investigations are not stopping because reporters will not stop working on it and honestly, every freaking day there is something new. Year, we split it equally. Except for one of us. I write them a poem instead. And one for each of you too. Woman cool. That actually yours. That one. Yeah. Regardless, were stuck with the bill. To many, words are the most valuable currency. Last i checked, stores dont take words. Man some do. Oh. alert beeps not everyone can be the poetic voice of a g