John McCain confesses to ties to bogus Trump Russian story, linked to MI6 agent, other campaigns
Sen. John McCain admitted Wednesday that he gave the FBI a dossier detailing false claims of a Russian blackmail plot against President-elect Donald Trump. Upon investigation, the rumor was fabricated with ties to British MI6 and a political opposition research firm in Washington.
The Arizona Senator made the public statement as questions piled up about his alleged role in spreading an unverified and error-riddled document that Trump has denounced as “a complete and total fabrication.”
BuzzFeed and CNN made the foolish decision to publish the bogus story and Trump attacked them as “fake news.”
“Late last year, I received sensitive information that has since been made public,” McCain said. “Upon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the Director of the FBI. That has been the extent of my contact with the FBI or any other government agency regarding this issue.”
Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein, who contributed to a story about the dossier reported by CNN on Tuesday, said McCain was given the document by a former British ambassador to Moscow.
“It came from a former British MI6 agent who was hired from a political opposition research firm in Washington who was doing work about Donald Trump for both republican and democratic candidates opposed to Trump,” Bernstein told CNN.
“It came from a former British MI6 agent who was hired from a political opposition research firm in Washington who was doing work about Donald Trump for both republican and democratic candidates opposed to Trump,” Bernstein told CNN.
“They were looking at Trump’s business ties. They saw some questionable things about Russians, about his businesses in Russia. They in turn hired this MI6 former investigator. He then came up with additional information from his Russian sources. He was very concerned by the implications of it. He then took it to an FBI colleague that he had known in his undercover work for years. He took it to this FBI man in Rome who turned it over to the bureau in Washington in August,” Bernstein said.
“And then, a former British ambassador to Russia independently was made aware of these findings and he took the information to John McCain – Senator John McCain of Arizona – in the period just after the election, and showed it to McCain – additional findings,” he added.