BIG BREAK: Judge Orders Release of Sealed Christopher Steele Deposition!

From the Washington Examiner:

The depositions given by former British spy Christopher Steele and a longtime associate of John McCain must be unsealed, a federal judge said Thursday. 

U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro overruled the objections of both Steele and David Kramer to make the depositions public. The pair gave testimony in a lawsuit brought against BuzzFeed in December 2018 by a Russian Internet entrepreneur. 

The businessman, Aleksej Gubarev, was referenced in the infamous dossier compiled by Steele about President Trump’s alleged connections to Russia. Gubarev objected to BuzzFeed’s publishing of the dossier in January 2017, which accused him of using his companies to hack into computers owned by the Democratic National Committee. 

The depositions could be released as soon as March 14. 

Ungaro dismissed the libel suit brought by Gubarev in December, ruling that the publishing of the dossier was protected by the fair report privilege. 

BuzzFeed was heavily criticized for publishing the unverified 35-page dossier, which contained salacious allegations against the president. 

Kramer, a former State Department official, gave the dossier to BuzzFeed in December 2016, after meeting Steele in London weeks earlier. 

Steele was hired by Fusion GPS during the 2016 presidential campaign to compile opposition research on Trump. 

Last year, Republicans from the House Intelligence Committee put together a memo that accused the FBI and the Justice Department of obtaining surveillance warrants to spy on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser, by using the dossier, but failing to present key information, including its author's anti-Trump bias and Democratic benefactors, to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. 

Democrats argued in a rebuttal memo that the FISA process was not abused and the GOP allegations are meant to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Here's more from the Daily Caller:

A federal judge in Florida on Thursday ordered the release of depositions given by former British spy Christopher Steele and a longtime associate of late Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain in a lawsuit filed against BuzzFeed regarding Steele’s anti-Trump dossier.

U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro overruled requests by Steele and David Kramer, the former McCain associate, to keep depositions they gave in the BuzzFeed lawsuit under seal. Ungaro dismissed a lawsuit filed against BuzzFeed on Dec. 19, 2018, by Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian businessman accused in the dossier of using his companies to hack into DNC computers.

The depositions by Steele and Kramer, a former Department of State official, are likely to shed light on how the dossier was compiled and disseminated to U.S. government officials and the press. Ungaro ordered the documents’ release for March 14.

Kramer, a former State Department official, provided the dossier to a BuzzFeed reporter Dec. 28, 2016, several weeks after meeting with Steele in London.

Steele was hired in June 2016 by opposition research firm Fusion GPS to investigate then-candidate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. He produced 17 separate memos dated between June 20, 2016, and Dec. 13, 2016, alleging a vast conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Kremlin to influence the election.

Carter Page, former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, speaks to the media after testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on November 2, 2017 in Washington, DC.  (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Though the document remains unverified, the FBI cited Steele’s report extensively in applications to obtain surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

The dossier suffered a heavy blow Wednesday, during the congressional testimony of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. Cohen denied, under oath, he visited Prague during the 2016 campaign, as the dossier alleges.

This YouTube channel has been a new follow of mine and they have been spot on with their reporting.  

They released this a few days ago and it almost reads as a "before its news" because we're now seeing these events start to unfold.

Will this Christopher Steele unsealed deposition be the precursor to the larger declassification we're all waiting on from Trump?

Take a look at what this guy thinks:

Get it here.