emptywheel

Woah. That would be interesting. Although, Source D has two other claims, the most famous of which was "confirmed" by a certain redacted person referred to as Source E, and a certain Source F.

So in the hypothetical where Akhmetshin was an intermediary, these other sources with non-Akhmetshin intermediaries would have to lie, or their intermediary would. Or Akhmetshin would have to be passing on good info.

Or Akhmetshin would have been the intermediary for the purported Sources D and E and F. I don't believe think that was the case, though. I think those other two had "an ethnic russian company operative" who they talked to.

Right: None of Steele's sources are first-hand to him. But again, consider implications of Source D being Agalarov (which is basically who it describes). Why didn't Steele report the June 9 meeting, the most damning evidence currently public?

I keep coming back to the silence on the June 9 meeting bc it seems, w/o explaining that, you can't assess the dossier project as a whole. Plus, if either Agalarov or Akhemtshin learned the project, both could tell RU intel, which means it'd be poisoned from the get-go.

In particular, perhaps "poisoned" by Source B, whose interlocutor was apparently discussing the "rumors about a dossier" with him. So if Source B's intermediary was Akhmetshin too... the first dossier memo would basically be Steele getting spun in real-time by Akhmetshin.

Do we have any proof Akhmetshin was in Russia in June? Doubtful that this happened remotely, because the first bullet point says A and B were speaking together to the trusted compatriot. Seems like in-person... And thus, probably, in Russia.

Not sure if that's where you were going with this. You had a larger point, and a very good one. Thanks.