Thread by @SethAbramson

The far right disinformation campaign on the Steele dossier is as aggressive a disinformation campaign as America has ever seen.

The indictments they cite don’t say what they say they do; the dossier doesn’t say what they say it does; they’re rewriting our history in scary ways.

We’ve reached the point where you can't even state basic facts about the Steele dossier without nutcases showing up to tell you those basic facts are wrong.

And U.S. corporate media, because it sees no money anymore in the Trump-Russia scandal, is letting those lies proliferate.

The number of people aware of what the dossier says and how much of it was confirmed is dwindling. The number of people who understand Steele’s background and that the dossier was raw intel is dwindling. The number of people who know how the dossier came to light is dwindling.

No, the dossier did’t launch the Russia probe. No, the dossier doesn’t allege there’s a Trump sex tape. No, Steele didn’t tell the FBI the dossier was 100% accurate. No, none of Bill Barr appointee John Durham’s indictments have *anything* to do with the *content* of the dossier.

No, nothing in the dossier has been conclusively disproven. No, it’s not true media wasn’t able to find corroboration for any of the dossier. Yes—some of the dossier has been confirmed. No, there’s no evidence the dossier was a Russian intel operation. This is all disinformation.

And when Trump runs for POTUS in 2024, the disinformation that corporate media thinks is irrelevant today—is issuing no pushback on today—will be shouted by Trump at every single campaign rally for a year. Media is digging America’s grave by not responding to this disinformation.

Those of us who are derided as blind defenders of the Steele dossier have done nothing more—literally *not a single thing more*, since January of 2017—than ask that reporting on the dossier be *accurate* instead of a systematized disinformation campaign coordinated by Team Trump.

Right after the dossier was released nearly five years ago, I wrote on Twitter that it was likely around one-third *inaccurate*—exactly as its author told the FBI and the media at the time. I also said that another third of it probably was—by its nature—incapable of confirmation.

So when I wrote a book in 2018 that in minor part analyzed the question of whether there was corroboration for the remaining third of the dossier, I did so using only major-media sources. I found that some of that third had been confirmed and some had a mountain of corroboration.

I also made sure to carefully analyze Steele’s background and the manner by which his dossier went to the FBI and eventually came to light. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man more lied about in American media than Chris Steele, nor work-product more lied about than his raw intel.

There’s now a viral clip of a host from The View haranguing Schiff about Durham’s latest indictment. The host falsely says the Danchenko indictment proves that Danchenko lied about the *content* of the dossier—made it all up. But the indictment has nothing to do with any of that.

Those of us who have been *painstaking* in sourcing our journalism on the Trump-Russia investigation are watching in horror as Trumpist insurrectionists and other far-right demagogues are effortlessly rewriting U.S. history without any pushback whatsoever. It’s truly a nightmare.

Mark my words, and save this tweet: the cowardice and laziness major media is showing now by permitting genuine villains to spread disinformation about Steele’s dossier and major-media reporting on the dossier will come to haunt America in 2023 and 2024 to an unimaginable degree.

Trump colluded with Russia.

He didn’t do it by helping them hack Democratic Party computers—and no one in media ever said he did.

He didn’t do it by funding the Kremlin’s propaganda ops—and no one in media said he did.

But that he colluded with the Russians is beyond doubt.

His Russia policy was written by Russian nationals and agents. He was secretly negotiating a deal with the Kremlin for his whole campaign—and lied to voters about it. He hid his many efforts to profit from his relationships in Russia. He knew his campaign head was a Russian pawn.

He withheld information about his team’s secret meetings with Russian agents from U.S. law enforcement. He greenlit a secret backchannel between himself and the Kremlin. He lied about whether the Kremlin had compromising information about him. His Russia policy betrayed America.

He publicly invited Russia to wage cyberwar on America. He spread what he knew was Kremlin disinformation. He sought to bolster a nonstate intelligence agency he knew was doing Russia’s bidding. He greenlit his team seeking dirt on Clinton from Russian hackers. He did Putin’s PR.

He obstructed justice and tampered with witnesses in the Russia probe. He helped his family cover up a meeting with Kremlin agents in his home. He pardoned at least three men he knew had secretly colluded with Moscow. He signed secret letters of intent to do business in Moscow.

He deliberately advanced Russian efforts to invade Europe, destroy NATO, and wage a domestic information war inside the United States. And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg.

And none of Trump’s defenders can deny any of this. They simply *lie about the dossier* instead.

They take the actual allegations against Trump and transform them into allegations that were never made so they can “refute” them. They pretend the dossier was an *report* rather than raw intel requiring additional follow-up. They call people Kremlin agents who are U.S. allies.

They impute knowledge to people even after it’s confirmed these people didn’t have the knowledge imputed to them. They build slogans they know are false—like “Clinton paid a Russian spy to interfere in the 2016 elecrion”—not because it’s true but because they know it’ll go viral.

The people pushing these lies are bad people who intend to end American democracy in the next 36 months. And the people in media who refuse to push back against these lies are cowards collecting a paycheck as Rome burns.

And those of us disgusted watching all this feel helpless.