After treating the Steele Dossier as serious, totally verified intelligence information for years, Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California joked about the bizarre “pee tape” rumor mentioned in the now discredited dossier on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” Thursday.
“What about Lev Parnas, did he give you tapes? I heard he gave you tapes. Lev Parnas handed over tapes to you between Giuliani and Donald Trump. Did that happen, Congressman, yes or no,” Colbert asked.
“Not the tapes you’re thinking about,” Schiff joked.
The tapes Schiff was referencing were the alleged “pee tapes,” cited in the Steele Dossier that accuse the Russians of having filmed Donald Trump watching prostitutes perform a “golden showers” show on the bed of a Moscow hotel room once occupied by the Obamas.
As part of the Russian collusion crusade run by Democrats, Schiff read the entire Steele Dossier into the congressional record as fact, including the unverified claims at the time such as the “pee tape” that has since been debunked as false, junk intelligence. Now, the serious evidence Schiff once roiled the country over for years is just a punch line for him.
The Steele Dossier ultimately led to a two-year investigation run by Robert Mueller that found the Russian collusion theory to be nothing more than a conspiratorial campaign launched by Democrats to reverse the results of the 2016 election.
On Monday, the Department of Justice inspector general released an explosive report detailing glaring omissions from the FBI on FISA renewal applications to spy on the Trump campaign as part of the bureau’s investigation into Russia collusion. The inspector general’s report reveals that the FBI knew as early as January of 2017 that the assertions made in the Steele Dossier were fault intelligence but still relied on the document for its applications anyway.
While the report ultimately concluded that political bias did not impact the renewal of the FBI’s warrants for undercover surveillance of the 2016 Trump campaign, its own findings fail to support that conclusion. Inspector General Michael Horowitz made clear to lawmakers before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that his report by no means vindicates anyone associated with the process, including former FBI Director James Comey.
