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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOOPS: Ivanka Trump Has Been "Personal Friends" with Christopher Steele for Years.
Rather than harbor a bias against Trump that led him to produce a negative, highly embarrassing file on the then-presidential candidate, the report found that, if anything, Steele was favorably disposed toward the Trump family, given his friendship with Ivanka, which @realDonaldTrump failed to mention at any point while slandering the former British spy as dopey, a Trump hater, and a lowlife on Twitter. While the apple of Trumps creepy eye is not mentioned by name, the family member referenced is said to be his eldest daughter, according to ABC News. Per the report, Steele told investigators that the allegation he was biased against Trump was ridiculous, considering well before he started his research, he visited a Trump family member at Trump Tower and had been friendly with [the family member] for a number of years. Steele described his relationship with said family member as personal and told investigators that hed once gifted them a family tartan from Scotland to.
According to ABC Newss Julia Macfarlane, Steele and Ivanka initially met at a dinner in 2007 and subsequently met up at Trump Tower. Emails suggest they stayed in touch over the next several years, with mentions of other dinners coming up. And not only were the two personal friends, Princess Purses reportedly invited the former spy to her office in 2010, after hed gone into private practice, to discuss the possibility of him working for the Trump Organization doing due diligence abroad as part of his work for Orbis [Business Intelligence], the firm he founded. Strangely, however, none of this came up while the president was maligning Steele as an associate of Crooked Hillary. (It is not clear if Trump the elder was aware of his daughters relationship with Steele prior to the release of the IG report, or if he called her to wail You just broke my heard into a thousands pieces! this afternoon.)
...Meanwhile Trumps chief footstool, aka Attorney General William Barr, is already hard at work trying to discredit the findings of his own organization. In a statement issued Monday, Barr said that The inspector generals report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken. Barr has tasked John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut, with conducting his own investigation into the Russia investigation, and while it would be fairly unusual for a government document to say something along the lines of Donald Trump is a beautiful, selfless, tender yet macho man who should be appointed president for life and a personal apology from every American for the crime perpetrated against him, were sure hell rise to the occasion.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/12/ivanka-trump-christopher-steele-inspector-general
5X
(3,972 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)getagrip_already
(14,697 posts)Could be a culture difference thing, but it's interesting he didn't say "friendly" instead. I guess he is really saying intimate without using the word.
Maybe that's why trump hates him.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Steele's line of work, and they make more with every job. It's quite possible the anti-Trump Republicans who hired his firm did so because they saw connection to the Trump family as an asset, which of course it was.
I'm curious to know just what jobs might have put him in the way of the Trumps in the first place, was he investigating something related to them, did Trump corp hire him, or were the first connections social?
I'm going to have to buy the new book by the founders of Fusion GPS, who hired Steele, Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump. They're making the rounds promoting it, and it sounds fascinating.
2naSalit
(86,518 posts)inquiry that this should finally come to light. I wonder at the nature of maintaining such a relationship.
And that book is on my wish/waiting list. When I can get hold of a copy, I'll be busy for a few days.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)A close personal connection between a British spy and a billionaire's daughter -- in real life, not a novel, is curious; and, though I wouldn't be interested in the novel, I am curious.
But they criticize Muellers probe for failing to heed the main lesson of Watergate: to follow the money. Simpson and Fritsch note that there is no indication in his report that the investigation looked at Trumps taxes, his outstanding debts, his curious relationship with Deutsche Bank, or his long history of financing real estate projects with foreign cash of unknown originprecisely the places where Russian influence efforts were most likely to surface. Jane Mayer
mia
(8,360 posts)At the link there's a video of Glenn Simpson, founder of Fusion GPS, speaking at the 2016 Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival and Symposium.
Fusion GPS bills itself as a corporate research firm, but in many ways it operates with the secrecy of a spy agency. No sign marks its headquarters above a coffee shop in Northwest Washington. Its website consists of two sentences and an email address. Its client list is closely held....
But hundreds of internal company documents obtained by The Washington Post reveal how Fusion, a firm led by former journalists, has used investigative reporting techniques and media connections to advance the interests of an eclectic range of clients on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley and in the nations capital. The firm has played an unseen role in stories that dominated headlines in recent years....
Fusion declined to comment on specific cases or identify clients, but said in a statement that it is proud of our methodology and the rigor of our research, amply demonstrated by the records cited by The Washington Post. They show what weve always stated: Our secret sauce is diligent and exhaustive analysis of public information.
It continued: The reason we are so effective is that we unearth facts that stand up to scrutiny presumably why we are still talking about our work detailing the connections between the Trump campaign and Russia more than a year later.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/journalism-for-rent-inside-the-secretive-firm-behind-the-trump-dossier/2017/12/11/8d5428d4-bd89-11e7-af84-d3e2ee4b2af1_story.html
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)maybe just wasn't interested at the time. Thanks.
For anyone who reads down this far and doesn't know Jane Mayer, if she says it, and she is careful and responsible in her statements, I'll believe it.
rickford66
(5,523 posts)Ivanka has possible affair with a spy (Chris). Hires him to generate the dossier so when Dad becomes president, he can complain about Obama and Clinton spying on his campaign. Good reason to fire all the Deep State moles and install toadies.
mia
(8,360 posts)Christopher Steele, former British intelligence agent and author of the controversial intelligence report alleging a conspiracy between President Trump and the Russian government leading up to the 2016 presidential election, knew Ivanka Trump for years prior to penning his Steele dossier. ABC News reports that Trump met Steele at a dinner in London in 2007; he was still working for MI6 while she was already in the family business and kind of sort of dating now-husband Jared Kushner. The two corresponded for years via email and even met at Trump Tower....
Steele called the allegation that he was biased against Trump from the start ridiculous. He stated that if anything he was favorably disposed toward the Trump family before he began his research because he had visited a Trump family member at Trump Tower and been friendly with [the family member] for some years. He described their relationship as personal and said that he once gifted a family tartan from Scotland to the family member.
But lets back up a minute here: A family tartan? According to some light research and British friends, Tartans tend to hold some sentimental significance, usually gifted to family members for important birthdays, graduations, and ceremonies like weddings. Perhaps in the ye olde tartan days, giving someone a tartan would perhaps be a formal indicator that someone wanted to ye olde fuck (or, you know, wed). So whats up with Steele giving Ivanka Trump a family tartan?
...Update, 5:40 p.m.: I received an important message from my Very Real British Friend Tiegan, who relayed my question of Steeles horniness to her gran, described by Tiegan as, so Scottish nobody can understand her: Yes, it could be an indication [that Steele was horny], but [a] family tartan in terms of relationships is normally given to the other at their actual wedding ceremony.
Hmmm!
https://theslot.jezebel.com/did-horniness-drive-christopher-steele-to-gift-the-fami-1840321496
H2O Man
(73,528 posts)It's a small world, sometimes.
gab13by13
(21,295 posts)I thought he was in bed with Hillary?
SayItLoud
(1,702 posts)They are all being conned and humiliated by this POS traitor and daily surprised by revelations. I guess the overwhelming flow of stuff from him keeps everyone off balance and tomorrow there will be something else just as evil revealed. We Dems, need to stick with a couple of messages. Do research, find the points that will move voters in key electoral states and target them, forget the national polls, vote. Just lock up the electoral. Just sayin..
VOX
(22,976 posts)Steele sounds like a flake, but his interest in Ivanka no doubt set 45s acrylic hair ablaze. This is the weirdest story of the week. For now, that is.
The more you know...
SuprstitionAintthWay
(386 posts)SuprstitionAintthWay
(386 posts)while being a Steeled Girl.
All the names are so perfect, even. This whole weird and seamy thing is so Austin Powers-ready.