Last updated on March 17th, 2019 at 03:36 pm

Rachel Maddow pointed to a new report in The New York Times published Thursday as further evidence that the so-called Steele dossier – the one that Trump and Republicans keep ridiculing – is an increasingly credible and accurate document.

According to the Times, the dossier alleges that Russian tech entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev “used ‘botnets and porn traffic to transmit viruses, plant bugs, steal data and conduct ‘altering operations’ against the Democratic Party leadership.'”

The report continued, “On Thursday, new evidence emerged that indicated that internet service providers owned by Mr. Gubarev appear to have been used to do just that: A report by a former F.B.I. cyberexpert unsealed in a federal court in Miami found evidence that suggests Russian agents used networks operated by Mr. Gubarev to start their hacking operation during the 2016 presidential campaign.”

As Maddow said, the nature of the new information is technical, but it also underscores the larger point that the damning Steele dossier has only grown more credible over time, not less.

“It has long been fascinating to me that Republicans and the Trump White House have focused on Christopher Steele and the Steele dossier,” she said. “I mean, honestly, bits and pieces of the dossier keep getting proven true all the time.”

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Maddow said:

What this technical report that we’ve now had unsealed out of that lawsuit, what it suggests is that at least in this part of the dossier, Christopher Steele was right. As “The New York Times” sums it up tonight, quote, a report by a former FBI cyber expert unsealed in a federal court in Miami finds evidence that suggests Russian agents used networks operated by the guy who sued Buzzfeed, Mr. Gubarev to start their hacking operation during the 2016 presidential campaign. Quote, the report suggestions of a link between Mr. Gubarev and Russian hacking is likely to spur new demands for renewed investigations. It has long been fascinating to me that Republicans and the Trump White House have focused on Christopher Steele and the Steele dossier as if it is embarrassing or bad somehow that that document and his work might have been a predicate for the larger Russia investigation and ultimately the special counsel. I mean, honestly, bits and pieces of the dossier keep getting proven true all the time. Nothing in it has been conclusively disproven at all and I mean, flip through it again sometime. I mean, you know, I don’t understand why Republicans and the White House keep drawing people’s attention back to the dossier. Really, you want people to read the dossier? What it says about the Trump campaign and Trump himself is not good and bits and pieces of it keep being proven true.

Republican efforts to smear the Trump-Russia dossier keep backfiring

Republicans have long sought to smear the Steele dossier often based on two flimsy arguments: 1. It has been fully funded by Democrats; and 2. It has been debunked and disproven.

Of course, we know Republicans are wrong on both counts.

We know now that it was a conservative website that first funded the research during the primary campaign that eventually turned into the Steele dossier.

And, as the MSNBC host pointed out on Thursday, the suggestion that the damning document has been debunked is completely ludicrous. As we continue to learn more about the president’s ties to Russia and the 2016 hacking operation, the Steele dossier only gains more credibility.

Donald Trump and Republicans would be smart to heed Rachel Maddow‘s advice and stop drawing attention back to a damning document that only continues to make this president look bad.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.

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