(Photo : Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)
Former UK intelligence officer Christopher Steele arrives at the High Court in London on July 24, 2020, to attend his defamation trial brought by Russian tech entrepreneur Alexej Gubarev.
Former British Intelligence Officer Christopher Steele has finally broken his silence four years after releasing the controversial Steele Dossier. In 2017, Steele claimed that Russian officials have compromising information on Donald Trump.
During his television interview with host George Stephanopoulos, Steele said that he decided to come forward after a couple of years to set the record straight. He also wants to explain his role in the investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 election.
Christopher Steele explains his decision to appear on TV
According to Steele, he was motivated to sit down for his first interview since he made his shocking claims against Trump because the issues that they identified back in 2016 have not gone away. Things have only gotten worse.
However, most of the claims made in the Steele Dossier have not been proven even after years of investigation.
For instance, Steele previously claimed that Trump hired prostitutes in Moscow to urinate on a bed in the presidential suite at the Ritz-Carlton while he's watching them.
When Steele first made the claims, he sounded confident that the shocking incident between Trump and prostitutes took place. But during his interview with Stephanopoulos, he said that the incident is probably real.
Steele also claimed that the pee tape that is allegedly in the custody of Russians probably exists. However, he admitted that he's not 100 percent confident that it does. After he made his claims, the FBI confirmed that Steele's allegations were most likely based on word of mouth and hearsay and not on facts, according to the Huffington Post.
Former British intelligence officer's claims against Cohen
Other than Trump, Steele also made claims about Michael Cohen's alleged trip to Prague. The latter previously denied traveling to Prague during a Congressional hearing in 2019.
A report from two years ago also confirmed that Cohen didn't travel to Prague, contrary to what Steele claimed. But even if this was the case, the former British intelligence officer still thinks that Cohen could be lying.
Stephanopoulos asked Steele why he thinks Cohen wouldn't admit that he went to Prague if he really did. "I think it's so incriminating and demeaning. And the other reason is he might be scared of the consequences," Steele said via CNN Philippines.
Steele also said that he is yet to be convinced that Cohen didn't set foot in Prague at the time. However, he admitted that he's prepared to accept that not everything mentioned in the Steele Dossier is accurate.
According to reports, the Steele Dossier featured 17 memos published by BuzzFeed 10 days before Trump was sworn into office. Shortly after the dossier came to light, the ex-POTUS slammed the allegations by calling them fake news and phony stuff.
But over time, journalists and experts became skeptical about the claims made in the dossier after they were verified and debunked, according to ABC News.
Four years later, Steele told Stephanopoulos that he knew that some of the allegations made were right while others may never be proven.
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