An unverified intel dossier claiming that the Russian government has collected material they could use to blackmail President-elect Donald Trump “feels real,” according to former CIA officer John Sipher.

“I do think that information is completely unvalidated and unvetted information that the public has no way of finding out whether it is credible or not,” he told CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Saturday.

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“However, the FBI and federal intelligence services can look at that information, cross-reference it, interview people, find out who the sources are, and find out what that information is,” he continued.

Sipher, who was stationed in Moscow in the 1990s, said that the tactics used in the dossier were not out of the realm of plausibility.

“Those of us who have lived and worked in Russia, and been under the thumb of Russian services — this isn’t just gossip, this information sounds very real to people who have been there. This is exactly how the Russians operate.”

“Where that salacious stuff about Mr. Trump is true or not — I doubt it, there is no way knowing without knowing who those sources are — but the feel of this is real. This is how the Russians operate… They are the best in the world at this kind of compromising information.”

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