That Didn't Age Well: Federalist Co-Founder Drags Media For Their Past Takes On Trump Dossier

The Trump dossier was the basis for this Russian collusion nonsense. It was also the only piece of evidence the Federal Bureau of Investigation cited as credible when obtaining a FISA spy warrant against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign official. In the end, it turned out Page wasn’t a foreign agent, something that a lot of people who didn’t have Trump Derangement Syndrome known since the start of this circus. The allegation that the FBI spied on the Trump campaign has been lobbed and pretty much confirmed. I mean the liberal media and the Department of Justice Inspector General report won’t say it, but there was bias in these investigations. Also, you have to do some serious linguistic gymnastics to make a case that it isn’t spying when secret informants try to glean information from Trump campaign officials under false pretenses and then relay whatever they said to superiors.

Attorney General William Barr said that the campaign was “clearly spied upon.” Obama’s former spy czar James Clapper also said that what the FBI did to the Trump campaign in 2016 fit the dictionary definition of spying. The report on the FISA abuses was damning for the FBI, citing 17 instances where exculpatory evidence and other information was omitted by FBI officials when they sought the spy warrant against Page. As Inspector General Michael Horowitz said on Wednesday, someone has to be fired for these missteps.

Media Misrepresentation. @KimStrassel says IG Horowtiz report did find personal bias, despite reports otherwise by the National Left-Wing media. #AmericaFirst #MAGA #Dobbs pic.twitter.com/3tcbhHQxTM
— Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) December 12, 2019

The Trump dossier was a piece of politically biased opposition research. Former FBI Director James Comey knew it. Other top officials knew it. It was a project funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democrats. It wasn’t verified, which speaks to the bias issue at the DOJ, and we now have two reports that debunk it. The Mueller report eviscerated the dossier, with the DOJ IG report delivering the final kill shot to this garbage document that the liberal media peddled as factual and accurate. This is the foundation of the Russian collusion lie that engulfed news cycles for the past two years which in the end, turned out to be pure fiction. This dossier has no more value than a roll of Charmin toilet paper. And Sean Davis, The Federalist co-founder, not only took a victory lap but found old tweets from past reporters and commentators, especially those from CNN, who defended the dossier as credible. Other reporters, including some from non-conservative outlets, have been calling out the liberal media establishment for their Trump dossier nonsense as well. It’s very satisfying.

Oof.

Blumenthal: "[FISAs] are renewed because they are producing useful information, correct?"

IG: "Or they should be producing useful information."

Blumenthal: "...they were producing useful information, correct?"

IG: "I'm not sure that's entirely correct." pic.twitter.com/70ydMovyFf
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) December 11, 2019

WTF? FBI tried to get Page FISA in Aug. 2016 & couldn’t. FBI got Steele dossier in Sept. & it “pushed it over the line” & formed “central & essential” part of FISA in Oct. onward. The allegation Page worked w/ Russia on 2016 meddling “relied entirely” on Steele primary subsource. https://t.co/gMuhJSvpl9
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) December 12, 2019

I'm sorry to say - genuinely - that the contempt in which the media is held, as dangerous as that is, is fully deserved because of the type of behavior you're displaying now. I don't blame people for losing all faith and trust in our profession with things like this: pic.twitter.com/URbBP8HYbU
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 12, 2019

Fellow liberal blogger @MaxBoot thought “the Steele dossier looks more credible all the time.” https://t.co/dGBRrlBpjs
— Sen. Grassley Press (@GrassleyPress) December 11, 2019

The IG report conclusively found that U.S. intelligence officials had determined by January of 2017--when Buzzfeed published its article--that the Steele dossier was false and that Steele's own primary sub-source for it said it was nonsense: "corroboration was 'zero.'" pic.twitter.com/315qXklDaP
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 12, 2019

This tweet didn't age well... https://t.co/0Pg6xsZNOK
— Jonathan Turcotte (@Turcotte_JPT) December 13, 2019

This aged so poorly that weird fuzzy stuff is growing all over it right now. https://t.co/5rBwnpx76Y
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 13, 2019

The denial of objective fact https://t.co/WGb0qBPrIp
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 13, 2019

Turns out the FISA judges approved spy warrants based on false information, doctored evidence, and outright lies from the FBI. https://t.co/4E5CVm6O6G
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 13, 2019