Dossier On Trump: Was It An Alt-Right Prank That A Desperate Mainstream Media Fell For?

In its report alleging that the Russian government has potentially compromising information on US President-elect Donald Trump, BuzzFeed News published an unverified “intelligence dossier”, supporting its claim, saying that it was making rounds in the journalistic circles and was prepared by a former British intelligence official. The news website said that it is publishing the full document “so that Americans can make up their own minds about allegations.”

The dossier, other than claiming that the President-elect has close ties with Russia and the country helped him win the election by hacking his opponents, made wild claims about his sexual misconduct and travels. It was subsequently used by different sections of the media and used to frame charges against Trump.

Now, in a sudden turn of events, a group of hackers which calls itself 4Chan has claimed that some information which appears on the dossier is “fan-fiction” actually written by them. According to one member of the hacker collective, various claims that appear in the document were sent to Republican media strategist Rick Wilson, who in turn shared it with the intelligence community as fact. Intelligence agencies based their report presented to Trump and Barack Obama on this dossier.

This helpful chart by Zero Hedge explains exactly how 4Chan could have done this:

The “intelligence dossier” identified wrong “Michael Cohen” as having gone to Prague. Given that the 35-page dossier has various omissions, factual inaccuracies and spelling mistakes, it is not hard to believe that it could well be fake. This is what WikiLeaks said: