The Washington Post is taking the “unusual step of correcting and removing large portions of two articles” about the discredited Steele Dossier, a document instrumental in initiating federal investigations into links between Donald Trump’s campaign for president and the Russian government, per a new piece by Paul Farhi, a media reporter for the Post.
While articles published in March 2017 and February 2019 “identified businessman Sergei Millian as ‘Source D,’” the source responsible for the claim that Trump had solicited Russian prostitutes in Moscow, executive editor Sally Buzbee said the Post could not continue to vouch for the veracity of that claim.
According to Buzbee, the indictment of Igor Danchenko, a contributor to the Steele Dossier, by Special Counsel John Durham for lying to the FBI about its sourcing, has cast new doubts on the Post’s assertions about Millian.
Original, unamended versions of the articles have been archived.
It is now believed that the Trump-prostitute story originated with Charles Dolan Jr., a Democratic operative with a preexisting relationship with Hillary Clinton, Trump’s opponent in the 2016 election.
The Steele Dossier was used to justify Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants used to surveil Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page.
The Durham probe, which was set in motion by former attorney general William Barr, has returned two indictments thus far. Michael Sussmann, a lawyer and Democratic operative who lied to the FBI about not representing a client while passing allegations about links between Trump and the Russian Alfa Bank on to the bureau, was indicted in September.
Sussmann billed the Clinton campaign for the meeting during which he made the allegations to the FBI.
Durham has been granted the authority “to broadly examin[e] the government’s collection of intelligence involving the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russians,” by the Department of Justice.
Source: National Review
