Major media promoted the Steele Dossier as credible despite it being unverified opposition research

In January 2017, BuzzFeed published a 35-page document alleging that Donald Trump had compromised ties to Russia and had engaged in salacious conduct during a Moscow hotel visit. The document, known as the Steele Dossier, came from British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and was funded by the Clinton campaign through the opposition research firm Fusion GPS. Within days, major news organizations treated it as legitimate investigative material worth extensive coverage.

For years, CNN, MSNBC, and the Washington Post built significant portions of their Trump-Russia coverage around the dossier's claims. The document became the foundation for countless segments, articles, and on-air discussions about potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. At no point did major outlets clearly disclose to audiences that this was unverified opposition research funded by a political candidate. The framing suggested it was credible intelligence.

The dossier also made its way into official channels. The FBI used the document to help justify FISA warrants to surveil Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. According to the 2023 Durham Report on the FBI's handling of the Russia investigation, the FBI even offered Steele $1 million to corroborate the dossier's claims. Steele never provided the verification.

When skeptics questioned the dossier's credibility, media outlets and officials dismissed these concerns. They insisted the document deserved serious consideration. Critics were portrayed as dismissing intelligence professionals or pushing conspiracy theories. The official narrative held that the dossier, while containing some unverified elements, pointed toward genuine concerns about Trump and Russia.

The evidence that contradicted this narrative took years to emerge. Investigations revealed that multiple specific claims in the dossier were false. The alleged Prague meeting between Trump campaign operative Michael Cohen and Russian officials—one of the dossier's most serious allegations—never happened. Igor Danchenko, the dossier's primary source inside Russia, was later charged with lying to about how he obtained information. In 2021, the FBI agreed to pay Danchenko $229,000 to settle a lawsuit over how agents treated him, but the underlying fact remained: key claims in the document were unverified at best, fabricated at worst.