Christopher Steele, the British former spy behind a salacious and unverified dossier about Donald Trump, said he believes one of the most infamous allegations in the document.
Steele told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the “pee tape” is “probably” real, according to a promo for the upcoming series, Out of the Shadows: The Man Behind the Steele Dossier.
The dossier claims Trump in 2013 hired prostitutes in Moscow to perform a golden showers show as he watched.
Supposedly, they urinated on a bed in the presidential suite at the Ritz-Carlton that had been previously used by then-President Barack Obama, and Russian intelligence may have secretly recorded the incident.
Steele said he is “prepared to accept” that some of the things in the dossier might not be true.
But the pee tape?
“I think it probably does” exist, Steele said. “But I would not put 100 percent certainty on it.”
Stephanopoulos asked why the Russians haven’t released the tape if they have it.
“It hasn’t needed to be released because I think the Russians felt they’d got pretty good value out of Donald Trump when he was president of the US,” Steele replied.
Trump last week randomly brought up the alleged pee tape himself, denying the allegations.
“I’m not into golden showers,” he said unprompted in a private speech at the National Republican Senatorial Committee retreat, according to The Washington Post. “You know the great thing, our great first lady – ‘That one,’ she said, ‘I don’t believe that one.’”
ABC notes that the intelligence agent who collected the reports on the incident later told the FBI that “the tenor of Steele’s reports was far more ‘conclusive’ than was justified” and that the pee tape allegation was based on “word of mouth and hearsay” and perhaps “made in jest.”
Steele told Stephanopoulos the collector may have “taken fright” after his cover was blown and tried to downplay his work as a result.
“I stand by the work we did, the sources that we had, and the professionalism which we applied to it,” Steele said.
Out of the Shadows: The Man Behind the Steele Dossier debuts Monday on Hulu.
Steele told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the “pee tape” is “probably” real, according to a promo for the upcoming series, Out of the Shadows: The Man Behind the Steele Dossier.
The dossier claims Trump in 2013 hired prostitutes in Moscow to perform a golden showers show as he watched.
Supposedly, they urinated on a bed in the presidential suite at the Ritz-Carlton that had been previously used by then-President Barack Obama, and Russian intelligence may have secretly recorded the incident.
Steele said he is “prepared to accept” that some of the things in the dossier might not be true.
But the pee tape?
“I think it probably does” exist, Steele said. “But I would not put 100 percent certainty on it.”
Stephanopoulos asked why the Russians haven’t released the tape if they have it.
“It hasn’t needed to be released because I think the Russians felt they’d got pretty good value out of Donald Trump when he was president of the US,” Steele replied.
Trump last week randomly brought up the alleged pee tape himself, denying the allegations.
“I’m not into golden showers,” he said unprompted in a private speech at the National Republican Senatorial Committee retreat, according to The Washington Post. “You know the great thing, our great first lady – ‘That one,’ she said, ‘I don’t believe that one.’”
ABC notes that the intelligence agent who collected the reports on the incident later told the FBI that “the tenor of Steele’s reports was far more ‘conclusive’ than was justified” and that the pee tape allegation was based on “word of mouth and hearsay” and perhaps “made in jest.”
Steele told Stephanopoulos the collector may have “taken fright” after his cover was blown and tried to downplay his work as a result.
“I stand by the work we did, the sources that we had, and the professionalism which we applied to it,” Steele said.
Out of the Shadows: The Man Behind the Steele Dossier debuts Monday on Hulu.
