For the second time in two days, President Trump attacked the late Sen. John McCain for "spreading" the Steele Dossier, which alleged an election conspiracy between Trump and the Russian government. McCain passed away in August 2018.
The backdrop: Court documents have revealed that McCain associate David Kramer shared the unconfirmed dossier with a number of press outlets in December 2017, though there is no evidence McCain himself did so. McCain did confirm in a 2017 interview that he provided the dossier to then-FBI Director James Comey.
Reality check: Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Steele Dossier is "totally discredited" and that it was the sole reason that the FBI opened an investigation into his campaign in 2016. Few, if any, components of the dossier have been refuted, and it was not the only source that the FBI relied on when it launched its counterintelligence investigation.
- The court documents also show McCain was informed of the dossier on Nov. 19, 11 days after the election — debunking Trump's claim that McCain was working with the Democrats to swing the election.