TIME TO FIRE CORRUPT JAMES COMEY, MR. PRESIDENT!

He was helping to bring down President Trump, “Buzzfeed Ben” Smith thought when he published the Steele dossier Jan. 11.

Instead, he may have sealed the doom of FBI Director James Comey.

Vladimir Putin began plotting to make Mr. Trump president more than five years ago, claims the dossier compiled by former MI-6 officer Christopher Steele. It consists of 17 reports allegedly made between June 20 and Dec. 13 last year.

Parts of the dossier began circulating in Washington last July. Senior U.S. intelligence officials gave President Obama and President-elect Trump a two-page synopsis of the allegations in it when both were briefed on Russian meddling in the election, CNN reported Jan. 10.

That prompted Buzzfeed Ben to publish all 35 pages of the dossier – a blunder of epic proportions.

Innuendo-rich stories implying Mr. Trump was in Putin’s pocket could be justified by oblique references to the Steele dossier – the Washington Post, for instance, has mentioned it 150 times to date — but only so long as the dossier itself was kept in the shadows.

Once those knowledgeable could read it, the jig was up.

“Garbage,” said one former CIA officer. “A rather ham-handed attempt at fabricating a document,” said another. “Hokey as Hell,” said a third.

“As forgeries go, this is not in the least convincing,” said Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan. “It was very obviously not written seriatim on the dates stated but forged as a collection and with hindsight.”

“It is hard to believe how anyone who claims to know anything about intelligence operations, propaganda and disinformation would believe anything in it,” said a former senior National Security Council staffer.

The reports consist mostly of third hand gossip, contains few specific claims that could be independently verified.

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen met with a Russian agent in Prague in late August, the Steele dossier claims. Cohen has never been to Prague, ever.

Sevastyan Kaptsugovich (whose name is misspelled in the dossier) is said to have played a key role in hacking the Democrat National Committee. He’s been in a Russian prison since 2013, with no access to computers or the internet.

The most sensational report claims Mr. Trump hired two prostitutes to urinate on the bed in the presidential suite of the Ritz Carlton in Moscow (because President Obama had slept in it) – a complete total fabrication.

Mr. Trump is a germophobe. A “golden shower” is not likely to be among his sexual proclivities.

Porn magazines Penthouse and Hustler offered $2 million to anyone who could supply evidence this happened. Nobody has.

The origin of the Steele dossier is an obvious red flag. A billionaire supporter of Jeb Bush hired Fusion GPS, an “opposition research” firm in Washington, to dig up dirt on Trump. Fusion GPS subcontracted the work to Steele’s firm. A billionaire supporter of Hillary Clinton paid the bills after Jeb flamed out.

Anyone in the National Security Division of the FBI who didn’t realize immediately the Steele dossier is a clumsy fraud has no business being in the National Security Division of the FBI.  Any FBI Director suckered by the fraud has no business being FBI Director.

So why did the FBI offer to pay Steele for more bogus reports? Whose bright idea was that? Did the FBI ever pay Steele anything? Did the FBI use the dossier to obtain a FISA warrant to surveil “Trump associate” Carter Page?

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) asked Director Comey these questions at a contentious hearing Wednesday (5/3), but Comey stonewalled him, as he had requests for documents in March and April.

A complaint to the Justice department alleges that while Fusion GPS was overseeing compilation of the Steele dossier (and leaking it to journalists), it was also working (in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act) to undermine sanctions against Russian businesses.

Is this true? Grassley asked Comey. The FBI director didn’t answer.

Is Fusion GPS “part of the Russian intelligence apparatus?” Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) asked Comey.

“I can’t say,” Comey responded.

Coverage of the hearing focused on Comey’s vigorous defense of his decision to inform Congress he’d reopened the investigation into Hillary’s emails after thousands more were found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop.

Clinton aide Huma Abedin routinely sent emails – dozens of them classified – to her husband’s (insecure) computer so he could print them out for her, Comey said.

Huma wasn’t indicted because the FBI couldn’t prove she intended to disclose secrets, Comey said.

That’s the same excuse he gave for not indicting Hillary. It’s a crock. The felony both Huma and Hillary committed multiple times is gross negligence in handling of classified information. If they’d intended to expose national secrets, that would be treason, which is covered by another statute.

“The double standard at work again,” said former CIA station chief Scott Uehlinger.  “It would have landed me in Leavenworth!”

Hillary blames Comey (and the Russians) for her defeat. But even some prominent Democrats tire of her whining.

Hillary aides concocted the Russian meddling narrative the day after her defeat, claims the gossipy book “Shattered” by lefty journos Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes.

Everything President Trump has done since winning the election gives the lie to the narrative he’s under Putin’s thumb.

The more we learn about how extensively Mr. Trump and associates were spied on, the more clear it is that if there’d been dirt to find, it would have leaked by now.

If there were real dirt, there’d have been no need to fabricate the Steele dossier.

The real scandal is the role of the FBI in promoting this obviously phony smear of Mr. Trump.

The truth is seeping out – thanks to the doggedness of Sen. Grassley and his staff.

And to Buzzfeed Ben. If he hadn’t published the Steele dossier for all to see, the Lying Swine would still be pretending it was genuine.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret, and was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force during the Reagan Administration.  Until his retirement in January 2017, he was the national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.