When BuzzFeed published an unsubstantiated 35-page dossier about Donald Trump last month, the website explained that its goal was to allow “Americans can make up their own minds” about the salacious allegations laid out in the document.
And if informing the American public was its true goal, readers might have expected BuzzFeed to continue reporting on the dossier by providing updates on any developments that might show whether or not the document is accurate.
But a review of the BuzzFeed website shows that the news outlet has done almost no follow up reporting to help the American public answer that question. That despite information that has come to light over the past month that casts further doubt on the veracity of the dossier.
The alleged source for the most salacious claims in the dossier is the head of a small Russian-American trade organization of questionable background. The opposition research firm that hired Christopher Steele, a former British spy, to compile the memos recently worked on a lobbying campaign backed by a former Russian intelligence agent and supported by the Kremlin.
Sergei Millian (left); Donald Trump (center); Jorge Perez (right) (via Facebook)
BuzzFeed has reported none of that. Nor has it, as have other outlets, interviewed national security experts or former intelligence officials to find out what they think of the veracity of the dossier. One intelligence community veteran told The Daily Caller that the dossier appeared to be a “complete fraud.”
Asked why BuzzFeed has not stayed on top of a story it brought to the public’s attention, a spokesperson for the company said only that “we’re pleased that publication of the dossier has helped advance the story, including providing readers context and updates — including a BuzzFeed News report that foreign intelligence is investigating its allegations — as well as debunking some specific claims.”
“However, success in verifying or debunking its claims does not diminish the compelling public interest in the story — or the presumptive right of the public, and not just the elite, to see this document,” the spokesperson added.
BuzzFeed has published some additional coverage of the dossier. It has also edited its original story to add several denials of claims made in the document.
It also reported over the weekend that it is being sued by a Russian tech executive named in the dossier. Aleksey Gubarev filed suit last week, noting that BuzzFeed failed to redact his name from the document.
BuzzFeed apologized to Gubarev in its article and redacted his name from the dossier.
BuzzFeed published the memos on Jan. 10, just after CNN reported that senior U.S. intelligence officials had briefed Trump on some of the allegations laid out in the dossier.
The site was heavily criticized for the decision to publish, including by CNN anchor Jake Tapper. The dossier had floated around numerous newsrooms for months but other outlets had decided against publishing because the claims laid out in the document could not be verified.
BuzzFeed’s Founder and CEO Peretti speaks as BuzzFeed’s Editor-in-Chief Smith looks on, in New York (REUTERS)
BuzzFeed wrote in its article at the time:
“Now BuzzFeed News is publishing the full document so that Americans can make up their own minds about allegations about the president-elect that have circulated at the highest levels of the US government.”
BuzzFeed’s editor in chief, Ben Smith, defended the decision in several interviews. He said that the American public should be privy to information that was passing among numerous Beltway journalists. And the fact that U.S. government officials took the claims seriously enough to mention them to Obama and Trump made the dossier newsworthy, Smith has argued.
The claims made in the dossier are explosive and, if shown to be true, would drastically undermine the Trump presidency.
One claim was that the Russian government is using a video recording of Trump with Russian prostitutes as blackmail material to force the Republican to toe the Kremlin line.
Another claim is that Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, met with Russian agents last summer to discuss ways to hurt Hillary Clinton during the presidential campaign.
But The Wall Street Journal produced new information late last month that would seem to cast doubt on the veracity of those claims.
The newspaper reported that Sergei Millian (aka Siarhei Kukuts) was the source of that sensational information. Millian is head of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce, a trade group that is much smaller than its name suggests. He has claimed in various interviews to have close business ties to Trump.
According to The Journal and ABC News, Millian may have inadvertently shared the information that ended up in the dossier during a conversation with someone who was reporting back to Steele, the ex-MI6 spy who compiled the dossier.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer, told TheDC recently that Millian is a “phony” who has misrepresented his ties to Trump.
The opposition research firm that hired Steele to compile the report also raises questions about the veracity of the document.
The firm, Fusion GPS, hired Steele last June to dig into Trump’s ties.
Headed by former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson, Fusion was the firm hired by Planned Parenthood in 2015 to publish a report discrediting a series of videos showing Planned Parenthood doctors and officials discussing the sale of fetal tissue.
Glenn Simpson, 1996 C-SPAN interview
And as The Daily Caller reported last month, Simpson and Fusion GPS were involved in another opposition research effort that appears to conflict with its recent anti-Trump project.
Simpson worked with Rinat Akhmetshin, a former Russian government agent, to undermine the Magnitsky Act, a piece of legislation that sanctions Russian criminals accused of human rights crimes.
The Kremlin strongly opposes the Magnitsky Act, which was passed in 2012 after an intense lobbying effort by Bill Browder, an American-born businessman who was formerly allied with Vladimir Putin.
In an interview with TheDC last month, Browder asserted that Simpson is a “professional smear campaigner.” He says he was immediately suspicious of the veracity of the Trump dossier because of Simpson’s involvement in the project.
BuzzFeed has added numerous updates and qualifications to its original article on the dossier. It has noted denials from Cohen, Trump’s lawyer. It now also reiterates that none of the claims in the document have been verified.
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