emptywheel

On the point of intel on hacking, the dossier is abysmal. And I've made that attack repeatedly. Which is my point.

Interesting. I'll re-read.

See the second section of this. https://www.emptywheel.net/2018/01/29/on-disinformation-and-the-dossier/ …

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.