Fox News Host Shep Smith Refutes Dossier Claims Alleged By Both Sean Hannity And Donald Trump

Fox News host Shep Smith has refused to go along with the allegations made by Donald Trump and colleague Sean Hannity on the subject of the Christopher Steele dossier and has pointedly stated that Robert Mueller’s investigation was categorically not sparked because of it.

As Newsweek reported, on Wednesday Smith discussed the assertions that Hannity and Trump had made about the dossier and dismissed them, along with claims also made by Rudy Giuliani and other individuals close to the president.

Contrary to what Donald Trump, Sean Hannity, and others have said, Fox News host Smith has said that the Russia investigation initially began after the president’s policy adviser gossiped to a diplomat that Russia had a lot of juicy information on Hillary Clinton that could potentially be useful.

“The Russia investigation began after the former Trump policy adviser George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat that the Russians had dirt on his then-political opponent Hillary Clinton. That information was passed onto intelligence officials.”

The Trump administration, it will be remembered, has been claiming that Steele’s dossier is what really kicked off the Mueller investigation, and Donald Trump himself took to Twitter to call it a witch hunt not long ago.

“We now find out that it was indeed the unverified and Fake Dirty Dossier, that was paid for by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC, that was knowingly & falsely submitted to FISA and which was responsible for starting the totally conflicted and discredited Mueller Witch Hunt!”

It should be noted that Shep Smith’s Fox News colleague Sean Hannity has fervently defended Donald Trump’s allegations on this subject and has called the dossier “phony.” In fact, in an interview that was conducted on August 8, Hannity stated that in his opinion, Hillary Clinton was behind the dossier and that she and the FBI were both to blame for the whole affair.

“The thing about the dossier that Hillary Clinton paid for and the fact that the FBI paid Steele, it was designed to misinform the American people with Russian lies to influence the election.”

Smith explained to his viewers that the Steele dossier contains 17 memos which suggest that the Russian government and those working on Donald Trump’s election campaign in 2016 engaged in misconduct. And, despite what Sean Hannity may have said, Shep Smith said that no part of the dossier has been disproven that he is aware of.

“Some of the assertions in the dossier have been confirmed. Other parts are unconfirmed. None of the dossier, to Fox News’s knowledge, has been disproven.

With the Fox News host dismissing dossier claims by Trump, Hannity, and others and describing what he believes is the real reason for the Mueller investigation, it is unclear what the president’s next move will be after taking away John Brennan’s security clearance.