Michael Isikoff, the reporter for Yahoo News who first broke the news of the salacious Russian Dossier, is now saying he believes the more salacious claims are false:
FOX NEWS – The salacious and unverified opposition research dossier cited by the FBI as its main justification to surveil a top Trump aide contains many claims that are “likely false,” according to the Yahoo News reporter who was among the first to break the news of the dossier’s existence.
Michael Isikoff’s statements on John Ziegler’s Free Speech Broadcasting podcast came a day before Michael Cohen adviser Lanny Davis reiterated that Cohen has never been to Prague — where, according to the dossier, he traveled to arrange a payment to Russian hackers during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The dossier was created by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and funded by the firm Fusion GPS — which was retained by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.
“In broad strokes, Christopher Steele was clearly onto something, that there was a major Kremlin effort to interfere in our elections, that they were trying to help Trump’s campaign, and that there was multiple contacts between various Russian figures close to the government and various people in Trump’s campaign,” Isikoff said.
But he added: “When you actually get into the details of the Steele dossier, the specific allegations, we have not seen the evidence to support them, and, in fact, there’s good grounds to think that some of the more sensational allegations will never be proven and are likely false.”
The FBI told the FISA court that Isikoff’s reporting was independent verification of the dossier when in reality it was not:
On four occasions, the FBI told the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court that it “did not believe” Steele was the direct source for Isikoff’s Sept. 23, 2016 Yahoo News article implicating former Trump aide Carter Page in Russian collusion.
Instead, the FBI suggested to the court, the article by Michael Isikoff was independent corroboration of the salacious, unverified allegations against Trump in the infamous Steele dossier. Federal authorities used both the Steele dossier and Yahoo News article to convince the FISA court to authorize a surveillance warrant for Page.
But London court records show that contrary to the FBI’s assessments, Steele briefed Yahoo News and other reporters in the fall of 2016 at the direction of Fusion GPS…
Trump was very thankful this morning for Isikoff’s statements on the dossier, giving him a big ‘thank you’ on Twitter after quoting him:
Russia Dossier reporter now doubts dopey Christopher Steele’s claims! “When you get into the details of the Steele Dossier, the specific allegations, we have not seen the evidence to support them. There’s good grounds to think that some of the more sensational allegations.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2018
....WILL NEVER BE PROVEN AND ARE LIKELY FALSE.” Thank you to Michael Isikoff, Yahoo, for honesty. What this means is that the FISA WARRANTS and the whole Russian Witch Hunt is a Fraud and a Hoax which should be ended immediately. Also, it was paid for by Crooked Hillary & DNC!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2018
Michael Isikoff was the first to report Dossier allegations and now seriously doubts the Dossier claims. The whole Russian Collusion thing was a HOAX, but who is going to restore the good name of so many people whose reputations have been destroyed?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2018