Donald Trump Russia dossier

On January 11, 2017, the media reported on the existence of a unsubstantiated dossier about United States President-elect Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia. The 35-page dossier claimed that Russia was in possession of damaging information about Trump, allegedly including video evidence of Trump consorting with several sex workers in Moscow during a visit for the Miss Universe 2013 pageant, and that the information could be used for purposes of blackmail, if Trump fails to cooperate with the Russian government. The dossier further alleges that Trump has been cultivated and supported as a presidential candidate by Russia for over five years, with the overall aim of creating divisions between western alliances, that Trump has extensive ties to Russia, and that there had been multiple contacts between Russian officials and people working for Trump during the campaign. It has been claimed by several news sources that the allegations within the dossier, if fully substantiated and independently confirmed, could provide grounds for impeachment, or even charges of treason, on the basis of what has been called the Trump campaign's alleged "coordination with Russia", prior to the election.
Dossier
On October 31, 2016, a week before the election, Mother Jones reported that a former intelligence officer, whom they did not name, had produced a report based on Russian sources and turned it over to the FBI.
The report further alleged that there were multiple in-person meetings between Russian government officials and individuals established as working for Trump. The former intelligence officer continued to share information with the FBI, and said in October 2016 that "there was or is a pretty substantial inquiry going on." Steele decided to also pass on the information to British and American intelligence services because he believed that the findings were a matter of national security for both countries. However, he became frustrated with the FBI, which failed to investigate his reports and chose instead to focus on investigating Hillary Clinton's emails. According to The Independent, Steele came to believe that there was a "cabal" inside the FBI, particularly it's New York branch linked to Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani, which blocked any attempts to investigate the links between Trump and Russia.
Trump and Barack Obama were briefed on the existence of the dossier by the chiefs of several U.S. intelligence agencies in early January. Joe Biden has confirmed that he and the president had received briefings on the dossier, and the allegations within.
Authorship
Christopher David Steele has been named as the source of the material. Called by the media a "highly regarded Kremlin expert" and "one of MI6's greatest 'Russia specialists", Steele formerly worked for the British intelligence agency MI6 and is currently working for Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd., a private intelligence company based in London. According to the BBC, Steele is not the only source for the information in the report. Before his spying career, Steele had previously been president of the Cambridge Union in 1985.
Public release
On January 10, 2017, CNN reported that classified documents presented to Obama and Trump the previous week included allegations that Russian operatives possess "compromising personal and financial information" about Trump. CNN stated that it would not publish specific details on the memos because they had not yet "independently corroborated the specific allegations." A senior U.S. intelligence official disputed CNN's claim that Trump had been previously briefed on the contents of the memos. Contrary to the official's claim, Clapper released a statement which suggested "that CNN's original report was correct." Although its existence had been "common knowledge" among journalists for around half a year at that point, the Telegraph asserted that Steele's anonymity had been "fatally compromised" after CNN published his nationality. Steele worked for Orbis Business Intelligence, Ltd. at the time the dossier was authored, and Orbis director Christopher Burrows would not "confirm or deny" that Orbis had produced the dossier.
The BBC has claimed the existence of a second dossier and stated that three independent sources from Steele within British intelligence back Steele's account, writing "the CIA believes it is credible that the Kremlin has such kompromat—or compromising material— on the next US commander in chief" and "a joint taskforce, which includes the CIA and the FBI, has been investigating allegations that the Russians may have sent money to Mr Trump's organisation or his election campaign."
Responses
During a press conference on January 11, 2017, Trump denounced the unsubstantiated claims as false, saying that it was "disgraceful" for U.S. intelligence agencies to report them. He refused to answer a question from CNN's senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta, arguing that the network was disseminating fake news. CNN defended how it had reported the story, arguing that it had published "carefully sourced reporting" on the matter which had been "matched by the other major news organizations," as opposed to BuzzFeed's posting of "unsubstantiated materials." James Clapper described the leaks as damaging to US national security but his statement also confirmed the original report by CNN. This also contradicted Trump's previous claim that Clapper said the information was false; Clapper's statement actually said the intelligence community has made no judgement on the truth or falsity of the information.

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