The ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein, released a scathing analysis Friday of the criminal referral of Christopher Steele made to the FBI last month by her GOP counterparts on the committee, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham.
“The criminal referral of Christopher Steele has nothing to do with accountability,” Feinstein said. “Clearly its goals included undermining the FBI and Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation, attacking Christopher Steele and deflecting attention from collusion and obstruction of justice investigations.”
“Not a single revelation in the Steele dossier has been refuted. Unfortunately, the claims in the criminal referral rely on classified information, so it’s difficult to fully repudiate them here. However, as much as possible using unclassified information, the following points lay out the flaws in the criminal referral.”
Among the points Feinstein made:
the criminal referral was based on one “baseless allegation” that Steele lied to the press
the referral did not claim that Steele lied about or presented untrue information about former Trump aide Carter Page in the dossier
the referral “omits key facts” (sound familiar?), including information the FBI provided to the committee after initial Jan. 4th referral
the referral fails to prove that Steele lied to the FBI (though it suggests he did)
Steele is a respected expert on Russia, who came forward “voluntarily out of concern for U.S. national security
In her conclusion, Feinstein notes that Steele went to the FBI of his accord based on concerns he had:
In June 2016, Mr. Steele began uncovering information indicating that Russia was interfering in the U.S. presidential election, and that the Trump campaign might be assisting Russia in its efforts.26 Under any circumstances, the right thing to do would be to go to law enforcement and turn over this information. And that is exactly what Mr. Steele did.
The same was not true of former Trump aide George Papadopoulos who, as Feinstein points out, did not voluntarily share what he knew with the FBI. She also notes that Trump’s release of classified material in the Nunes memo proves that it was not information from Steele that triggered the Russia investigation but rather revelations about Papadopoulos.
Feinstein concludes:
This Committee should dedicate its resources and attention to getting to the bottom of exactly what Russia did during the 2016 election and who was involved – not attacking voluntary sources and the nation’s leading law enforcement agencies.
Honest to god, by the time the GOP is done defending Trump, the U.S. will have no international allies who will tell us anything. Ever. Again. #ThanksTrump