emptywheel

Read now: Steele entered the picture post hacking in the midst of the data dumps. As with anything involving Russia i'm sure there were active measures happening. I wouldn't discount Steele as a rube in his reporting of raw intel. My larger observation is GOP attacking the man.

"In the midst of" is a key part of the timeline no one wants to nail down. https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/10/25/democrats-continue-to-score-massive-own-goals-with-steele-dossier/ … In any case, virtually every defense of the dossier ignores that G2.0 was releasing docs before the first dossier report said kompromat = old intercepts.

Sure; however, that fits with active measures of obfuscation. From a Trump POV this is all about money. It’s starting to look like this is a collective concern for the GOP.

To be clear: Dossier defenders are obfuscating key timeline details. But I agree that seeding disinfo to lull Dems would also be consistent. But it hasn't been considered seriously enough.

I think the issue with the dossier is most people do not understand the meaning of raw intel. The objections raised have argued details rather than the macro implications.

If none--zero--of the underlying claims can be confirmed the macro still holds? I think the macro is generally right. But you cannot get there via details none of which have been corroborated and many of which are outright wrong.

But, if so, that makes it all the more masterful piece of disinfo (if that's what it is, and I increasingly think it is).

Which, btw, is utterly consistent with what I believe I know about other parts of this op.