The Big WaPo Story & Why Everyone Needs to Thank Marc Elias

[underpants]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-big-wapo-story-why-everyone-needs-to-thank-marc-elias

The Big WaPo Story & Why Everyone Needs to Thank Marc Elias

Look back at almost countless articles on the so-called Steele Dossier and you’ll find the same basic account. The project began as an opposition research project funded by Republicans during the GOP primaries when, of course, there were Republicans with an interest in finding damaging information about Donald Trump. After Trump sealed the GOP nomination, Republicans had no desire or interest in funding this research. So Democrats agreed to start footing the bill.

Is this new? Not really. Here is I believe the first reporting on what we now know as the Steele Dossier. It’s an October 31st (2016) report from David Corn in Mother Jones, reporting how a veteran spy had provided information to the FBI about a Russian operation to cultivate Donald Trump.

In any case, there’s a big effort now to present this as somehow being a scandal in itself, or discrediting Steele’s sleuthing. That is ridiculous. Is it really a scandal that Democrats helped fund research into Donald Trump’s illicit ties to Russia after Republicans donors decided they didn’t care anymore?

Not really.

The Trump team wanted to deliver for Russia right out of the gate in January, a quick series of accommodations and a ‘grand bargain’ with Vladimir Putin. It was the investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia that got in the way and mainly prevented it. It’s clear that Steele’s research played a major role in that. Remember, the FBI found it so critical it agreed to continue funding Steele’s research. Without Marc Elias’s decision, that research may never have been conducted. The country owes him a debt of gratitude.

[NCjack]

1. Thank you Marc !!! nt

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

2. Marc Elias should be hailed as a hero... instead of the way he's being skewered by the MSM.

[Gothmog]

3. I agree with Josh Marshall

[More_Cowbell]

4. CNN reported in January that first some GOP backers and then the Democrats paid for the brief

I'm not sure there's anything new in the WaPo story, which makes me wonder why they published it. Just to bring the dossier back into the news? I'm hoping (on the basis of absolutely nothing!) that maybe they wrote it because they have their own dossier story that they hope to release some day soon.

[More_Cowbell]

5. Mother Jones reported it even earlier, in October 2016

David Corn wrote the story: "This was for an opposition research project originally financed by a Republican client critical of the celebrity mogul. (Before the former spy was retained, the project’s financing switched to a client allied with Democrats.)"

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/veteran-spy-gave-fbi-info-alleging-russian-operation-cultivate-donald-trump/

I find the timing strange for WaPo's new story.

[Madam45for2923]

6. Thank you Mark!