“A defamation trial against Christopher Steele began in London on Monday, with revelations of the ex-spy’s efforts to disseminate his infamous dossier through the late Sen. John McCain and a longtime ally of the Clintons.
(…)In another text, Steele told Sir Andrew Wood, a former British diplomat, that McCain was ‘compromised’ because he was provided a copy of the dossier.
(…) In one message after Donald Trump’s election win in November 2016, Steele asked Strobe Talbott, who then served as president of the prestigious Brookings Institution, how he wanted to handle “the package” — a reference to the dossier.
(…) “Dear Strobe, I know this is not straight forward but we need to discuss the package we delivered to you the other week, and sooner the better. What you thought of it, what you did with it, how we (both) should handle it and the issue it highlights going forward etc.,” Steele wrote on Nov. 12, 2016, according to Caldecott.
John Kerry delivers remarks at the Foreign Affairs Policy Board meeting at the Department of State in Washington, D.C., on March 28. 2016. Also pictured is Brookings Institution President Strobe Talbott. (State Department photo/ Public Domain)
It is not clear what Talbott, a longtime friend of the Clintons’, did with the dossier once he obtained it, but Fiona Hill, a former Brookings official who served in the Trump White House, told Congress last year that Talbott provided her a copy of the dossier a day before BuzzFeed published it.
(…) In another message from early 2017, Steele urged David Kramer, an associate of Sen. John McCain’s, not to tell reporters that Steele had been a source for another journalist on a dossier-related story.
And in a message weeks earlier, Steele told Sir Andrew Wood, the former British ambassador to Russia, that McCain was “compromised” by being given a copy of the dossier.” (Read much more: The Daily Caller, 7/21/2020) (Archive)