Washington Post’s Max Boot dismisses Steele dossier after hyping its

Washington Post columnist Max Boot is attempting to downplay the significance of the Steele dossier after he spent years giving the infamous memo legitimacy. 

Amid revelations from the ongoing Durham probe that continue to discredit the dossier that helped fuel the Russia collusion narrative during the Trump presidency, Boot penned a piece titled, “Even if the Steele dossier is discredited, there’s plenty of evidence of Trump’s collusion with Russia,” saying claims the narrative was phony “won’t fly.”

WASHINGTON POST BOSS DEFENDS ‘COMPLETELY ETHICAL’ REPORTERS AFTER STEELE DOSSIER CORRECTIONS

“The Steele dossier is a sideshow,” Boot wrote Thursday. “Like many raw intelligence reports, it was full of uncorroborated information — a lot of which doesn’t check out. But the Steele dossier did not launch the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, and discrediting it does not undermine the evidence that the Kremlin helped Trump win the election with his campaign’s eager encouragement and cooperation. You can debate whether this constituted ‘collusion,’ a word with no legal definition. You can’t deny that there was extensive collaboration — at least not without resorting to bald-faced lies.”

“The Steele dossier might be tarnished, but the evidence of collusion — or, if you prefer, collaboration — remains as damning as ever,” Boot later added. 

Boot referred to the Steele dossier as a “sideshow” in October 2017, but he did not treat it that way.

“More evidence that dossier on Russia-Trump links are considered credible by FBI,” Boot tweeted in February 2017.

WASHINGTON POST CORRECTS, REMOVES REPORTING THAT RELIED ON DISCREDITED ANTI-TRUMP STEELE DOSSIER

“More evidence that Christopher Steele’s dossier is being corroborated, at least in part. (Raw Intel seldom 100% accurate),” Boot tweeted April 2017 reacting to a report shared by CNN anchor Jake Tapper. 

“The Steele Dossier detailing Trump-Putin links is looking more credible,” the columnist tweeted in September 2017.

In March 2018, Boot wrote, “Trump’s unwillingness to criticize Putin makes you wonder what hold the Kremlin has over him; the Steele dossier looks more credible all the time.”

Much of the media have begun revisiting its reporting of the Steele dossier following revelations from the Igor Danchenko indictment that significantly undercut its credibility. 

WASHINGTON POST HAS CORRECTED OVER A DOZEN ARTICLES RELATED TO STEELE DOSSIER COVERAGE

Even Boot’s own paper issued multiple corrections on its past reporting that had allegedly corroborated details in the dossier, adding editor’s notes to at least 14 reports.