Did y’all notice that President Obama gave his farewell speech last night? Yeah, you did, but everything is forgotten today, thanks to the continued “golden shower” story involving Donald Trump’s “compromising” information reportedly held by Russia. An unexpected twist in the story arrived with news of John McCain delivering the dossier to the FBI in December.
The FBI’s still digging into the dossier — and probably cannot freaking believe their jobs right now — while the media dug for McCain’s source, who seemingly impressed the Arizona senator with his reliable ties to Kremlin information. The winner of the race appears to be the Wall Street Journal, who followed the breadcrumb trail to Christopher Steele, a former British spy who acts as co-director of a London-based intelligence company called Orbis. The paper stresses that the file is still full of unconfirmed details but has more information on Orbis, which was founded in 2008 by a group of ex-British spies. The firm is located in a high-end area of London:
[Orbis Business Intelligence] relies on a “global network” of experts and business leaders, provides clients with strategic advice, mounts “intelligence-gathering operations” and conducts “complex, often cross-border investigations,” its website says.
The dossier consists of a series of unsigned memos that appear to have been written between June and December 2016. Beyond creating the document, Mr. Steele also came up with a plan to get the information to law-enforcement officials in the U.S. and Europe, including the F.B.I., according to a person familiar with the matter.
As one can imagine, Christopher Steele not only seems like a fitting spy name for this mess, but the guy’s already receiving tons of internet attention. Ultra right wing sites are digging Steele’s professional history, along with that of his co-partner, and some buzzings on Twitter say that the United Kingdom has already issued a Defense Advisory notice in order to keep his name out of the British press. It’s a valid concern, and let’s hope that Steele and his business partners have some really good security measures.
After all and as Marco Rubio pointed out in Rex Tillerson’s confirmation hearing today, Vladimir Putin isn’t someone you want to cross, and this “golden showers” story isn’t exactly flattering to Russia.
UPDATE: The BBC reported this this afternoon that Steele and his firm, Orbis, were working for Jeb Bush’s SuperPAC when the dossier on Trump was compiled. BBC News’ Paul Wood says that “the opposition research firm that commissioned the report had worked first for a SuperPAC – political action committee – supporting Jeb Bush during the Republican primaries.”
(Via Wall Street Journal)