Another Steele revelation: Russia ‘Blocked’ Mitt Romney as Secretary of State
Christopher Steele, a former British MI6 spy and renowned author of the Trump Dossier, reveals that Moscow reportedly had influence on US President Donald Trump when he was in the process of deciding his secretary of state, namely that the Russians vetoed Mitt Romney.
According to Steele, the first person to report on Trump’s relations with the Russians to US authorities, “a senior Russian official,” relaying talk circulating in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told him that the Kremlin had intervened to block Trump’s initial choice for Secretary of State, Mitt Romney.
During Romney’s run for the White House in 2012 he was notably hawkish on Russia, calling it the single greatest threat to the US.
Steele’s memo on the subject says that the Kremlin, through unspecified channels, had asked Trump to appoint someone who would be prepared to lift Ukraine-related sanctions, and who would cooperate on security issues of interest to Russia, such as the conflict in Syria.
Romney was reportedly under consideration for the State Department post, and met with Trump during the transition period. But the president ultimately chose current Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. In a humiliating public spectacle, Trump dangled the post before Romney until early December, then rejected him.
Tillerson was a surprise to most, and a happy one in Moscow, because Tillerson’s business ties with Kremlin were long-standing and warm. In 2011, Tillerson had brokered a historic partnership between ExxonMobil and Rissia’s Rosneft. After the election, Congress imposed additional sanctions on Russia, in retaliation for its interference in US elections, but Trump and Tillerson have resisted enacting them.
Steele compiled an unverified and controversial dossier detailing Trump's alleged ties to the Kremlin. That document became a flashpoint in the probe into Russia's election meddling and any possible ties between the Trump campaign team and Moscow.
Steele’s sources suggested that the Kremlin not only had been behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign but also had compromised Trump and developed ties with his associates and campaign.
Trump has repeatedly denied allegations that his campaign colluded with Russians and has called Steele’s dossier 'pile of garbage.'
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