April 20, 2018
EVERYTHING IN THE DOSSIER HAS BEEN CONFIRMED SO FAR:
Putin bragged about Russian prostitutes on TV weeks before Trump told James Comey a similar anecdote (Peter Weber, 4/19/18, The Week)
"The president brought up the 'Golden Showers thing' and said it really bothered him if wife had any doubt about it," Comey recalled. "He then explained, as he did at our dinner, that he hadn't stayed overnight in Russia during the Miss Universe trip. ... The president said 'the hookers thing' is nonsense but that Putin had told him 'we have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world.' He did not say when Putin had told him this."That is a strange thing to say to an FBI director on your third-ever meeting -- in their first, Comey had briefed Trump on the Russia dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, which included the unsubstantiated "golden showers thing" -- but it is also odd because officially, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had spoken only once, on a Jan. 28 phone call. Trump claimed to have met Putin several times between 2013 and 2016 -- as CNN meticulously documents -- including during a 2015 debate, though his story changed in 2016.On Jan. 17, 2017, however, Putin said on TV: "I don't know Mr. Trump. ... I have never met him and I don't know what he will do on the international arena." And in that same speech, he made light of the Trump-prostitute allegation, saying Trump had met the most beautiful women in the world and so had no need for Moscow prostitutes, adding that "they are also the best in the world."
Posted by Orrin Judd at April 20, 2018 4:11 AM
