What? Why? And why now? Donald Trump dossier explained

DONALD Trump is mad about it and social media is frothing over it. Here’s how the damaging dossier came to light.

President-elect Donald Trump spoke angrily about the claims during a press conference in New York. Picture: Spencer Platt / Getty Images / AFP

AN EXPLOSIVE dossier that has been circulating in US government and media circles containing a number of unsubstantiated and damaging claims about President-elect Donald Trump has now been made available to anyone in the world with an internet connection.

While the memos have provided social media with an endless stream of material, and anyone concerned about Russia with a sufficient level of angst, they’ve also dealt a fair bit of confusion.

The barrage of claims have people questioning where the information came from, what it will lead to, and why it’s such a big deal.

Basically, the drop has given us some answers over the political situation in the US right now, but it’s also thrown up a lot more questions.

Here’s what we know about the shadowy document.

WHY WAS IT COMPILED?

The 35-page document appears to have been compiled as part of a dodgy-sounding but actually quite common political process.

During and leading up to an election campaign, a party or candidate might establish a dirt unit to conduct and commission “opposition research” to see what they can dig up on their opponents.

In this case, a Washington political opposition research firm (they exist) was engaged in investigations about Mr Trump by both his Republican and Democratic opponents, and came across some “questionable things” about his business ties to Russia.

They then purportedly got people with the right connections on the case and dug up some incredible claims about the President-elect and his relationship with Russian authorities, plus some extra titbits.

WHO PUT IT TOGETHER?

According to a journalist who was sent the dossier — Carl Bernstein, who broke the story of the famous Watergate scandal — the firm approached a former British spy who knew a thing or two about Russia to investigate and he came up with most of the claims contained in the dossier from a number of trusted sources.

The investigator, a former MI6 agent, purportedly turned in his information to the FBI and it made its way to the bureau’s top guys in Washington in August.

Well-known Trump critic Senator John McCain, who says he was given the dossier by a former British ambassador, also claims to have passed on the information to the FBI.

He said he received the contents of the dossier and, “unable to make a judgment about their accuracy”, delivered the documents to authorities “last year”.

A user on social media site 4chan claims to have created the memos in a work of “fan fiction”, mailed it to anti-Trump Republican strategist Rick Wilson, who 4chan users says must have passed it on to intelligence agencies.

Mr Wilson has denied this and the 4chan story has been widely dismissed.

However, several newsrooms and government figures claim to have been in possession of or been made aware of the dossier months ago, citing differing sources.

Senator John McCain said he passed on the memos to the FBI. Picture: Cliff Owen/AP Photo

SO, WHY ARE WE ONLY HEARING ABOUT THIS NOW?

We know that the dossier was compiled last year and, since its publication, several news outlets and individual journalists keen to prove they didn’t miss the story, have leapt to make it known that they knew about it too.

This has of course prompted confusion. If publishers knew about the documents, why didn’t they, you know, publish them?

The key reason is doubt, and a glaring veracity issue.

One journalist who claimed to have been offered the dossier months ago said the reason she failed to follow through with the story was simple: “It was impossible to verify.”

Reporters from multiple US news organisations have claimed they pursued the story, tried to verify the claims, but were unsuccessful. The source was questionable and the claims contained in the documents were damaging to a high-level public figure — a potential president — and publishing them could have been massively damaging to any daring news outlets that chose to make them public.

Political website Mother Jones got close when it published an article in October last year authored by its Washington editor, who claimed to have met with the MI6 source.

“A former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialised in Russian counterintelligence tells Mother Jones that in recent months he provided the bureau with memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist Trump — and that the FBI requested more information from him,” the article read.

The FBI refused to comment on the suggestion of an investigation and the story went no further.

Information about the dossier was finally published after journalists had been holding onto it for months.

But circumstances changed on Wednesday.

According to outlets that chose to publish the memos or a summary of them, the shift came when it was discovered a summary of the report had been brought to the attention of the highest level of US government. President Barack Obama had been given a two-page summary of the comprehensive dossier as part of a classified report by key intelligence agencies investigating Russian hacking and leaking claims during the election.

US broadcaster CNN was the first to run with this line and published a story focusing on the fact that the claims had been brought to the attention of the President and President-elect. Authorities appeared to be taking them seriously.

After the CNN report, which revealed claims Mr Trump had been cultivated by Russia for at least five years, online news organisation BuzzFeed decided to publish the entire dossier, complete with salacious detail of claims surrounding the President-elect’s predilection for prostitutes and “golden showers”.

The article came with acknowledgment that “the allegations are unverified, and the report contains errors”.

The publisher attempted to justify publication saying it had decided that “Americans can make up their own minds about allegations about the President-elect that have circulated at the highest levels of US government”.

CNN has also published a statement justifying their decision to go ahead with the story that led to BuzzFeed’s follow-up, and their reasons are very different.

CNN's response to Donald Trump: pic.twitter.com/5PljS7L0WS

— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) January 11, 2017

ARE THE CLAIMS TRUE?

That’s what we still don’t know.

You’ll notice in reading about them, there will be no acknowledgment of whether the events detailed in the memos actually happened or whether any of the information is accurate.

At the moment, they’re simply “claims”.

The only facts media outlets have to run with are that the claims exist and have been reported, and reaction to them.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

As well as being accessible by anyone in the world with an internet connection, the documents are in the FBI’s hands.

The authority is investigating the claims contained in the memos, and if the Democrats get their wish, investigators will take particular interest in looking into claims concerning Trump’s alleged meetings with Russian officials during the campaign.

The hitch in this plan is that in about nine days, the man who the explosive and damaging claims centre on will be in charge of that particular agency and others with authority to investigate it.

Like a lot of things in Trump’s America, the situation is a little unpredictable.

AND, HOW DOES MR TRUMP FEEL ABOUT ALL THIS?

He’s not stoked.

In a messy and shouty press conference — the President-elect’s first since July — Mr Trump dismissed the claims as “fake news” and savaged the news outlets that had reported it.

“I think it’s a disgrace that information would be let out,” he said.

“It’s all fake news, it’s phony stuff, it doesn’t happen ... It was a group of opponents who got together, sick people, and they put that crap together.”