Fox News’ Shepard Smith broke down the Trump administration’s false claims about the Steele dossier being the impetus for the Russia investigation and he did not mince words.

“The White House today echoed President Trump’s false tweets claiming that the dossier is the foundation of the special counsel Robert Mueller‘s Russia investigation,” Smith began. “We’ll play the sounds, show you the tweets, and then explain the facts.”

Smith then played a clip of White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders saying that the investigation is “based off of a dirty discredited dossier” and showed a tweet that President Donald Trump wrote saying the dossier was fraudulent.

“In the main and in its parts, that statement is patently false,” Smith explained. “According to the Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee, the feds started the Russia investigation in July of 2016 after then-Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. The diplomat then gave that information over to the FBI.”

“And while the U.S. Intelligence community has not confirmed parts of the dossier, there are elements of it that are confirmed true,” Smith continued. “No part of it to Fox News knowledge has been confirmed false. The special counsel, Robert Mueller, is a registered Republican. The deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller, is also a Republican. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who swore in Rosenstein, is also a Republican. President Trump, a Republican, appointed Sessions.”

“The dossier is 35 pages of research memos. Christopher Steele wrote it during the 2016 campaign. He’s a former British intelligence agent. A research firm called fusion GPS compiled the memos. They allege conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to help Mr. Trump win the election over Hillary Clinton. Republicans supporting Marco Rubio first hired the research firm. When Mr. Trump instead won the nomination, that group stopped funding the research and the Clinton campaign began funding it.”

So there you have it, folks. White House, consider yourself Shep-checked.

Watch above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

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