A senior Democratic politician has claimed that the salacious sex acts alleged in the unverified “Russian blackmail dossier” against President Donald Trump are “absolutely true”.
Congresswoman
Maxine Waters is the first US politician to say on the record that the
document, which alleges the Russian state has compromising sexual and
financial information on the President, is genuine.
“We
already know about the part about the coverage they have on him with
sex actions is supposed to be true,” Ms Walters told US broadcaster,
MSNBC. “They have said that’s absolutely true, some other things they
kind of allude to.”
She did not provide evidence to back up her claim or reveal who had said it was "absolutely true".
Pressed
for more information, she said: “You understand that I am saying the
investigations must be done, the drilling down must be done. We must get
to the facts of what it has been about.”
If the dossier was ever substantiated, she said that Mr Trump should then be impeached.
“I
don’t think you can do the impeachment just because I think or others
think," she said. "But I think if we do the investigations, that we will
find the connections and I do think that impeachment will be
necessary.”
Ms Waters' office later claimed she had not intended to suggest the dossier had been verified.
“She wasn’t talking about anything that’s not already in the public domain,” an aide said.
Ms Waters was referring to unsubstantiated allegations in the dossier compiled by a former British spy Christopher Steele.
It
alleged that the Russian intelligence service, the FSB had videos and
recordings of Mr Trump in a Moscow hotel with prostitutes – material
that could be used to carry out blackmail.
Never
intended for publication, it was compiled as op-positional research,
first on behalf of Mr Trump's rivals for the Republican presidential
candidacy and later for the Democrats.
But
prior to President Trump being sworn in, the BuzzFeed decided to
publish it in January, although it admitted it had not been able to
verify its contents.
However, it claimed the existence of the dossier meant there was a clear public interest in publishing.
Mr
Trump denounced it as “fake news” but the FBI had attempted to make a
deal witht Mr Steele, a former MI6 agent, to obtain the contents of the
memo.
It
has since been reported that US investigators have corroborated aspects
of the dossier concerning conversations between foreign nationals.
Ms
Waters is the most senior of the 12 black women in the US Congress
which she was elected to in 1991. She has been a politician for more
than 40 years.
A
fierce critic of Mr Trump, she has previously called his friends and
advisers who have ties to Russia or oil and gas interests “a bunch of
scumbags”.
In
February, she warned Mr Trump was “leading himself” to possible
impeachment because of his alleged conflicts of interests and that he
was creating “chaos and division”.
The
Senate Intelligence Committee is considering requesting testimony from
Mr Steels as it investigates whether Mr Trump’s associates worked with
Russian hackers in attempts to influence the presidential election.
0 comments:
Post a Comment