Article snippet: President Donald Trump has slammed the so-called “dossier” as fake, phony, dirty, horrible and a disgrace. But former FBI Director James Comey said he believed from the outset that the British intelligence officer who wrote the report was a “credible source.” “It was coming from a credible source, someone with a track record, someone who was a credible and respected member of an allied intelligence service during his career,” Comey said, referring to former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. “And so it was important that we try to understand it, and see what could we verify, what could we rule in or rule out.” The “dossier” is a 35-page document containing raw intelligence compiled by Steele. Comey talked about the FBI’s first impressions of the dossier during his exclusive interview with ABC News’ chief anchor George Stephanopoulos ahead of the April 17 release of his book “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.” “It, at its core, was consistent with the other information we'd gathered during the intelligence investigation,” he said of the dossier. Comey said there were three goals behind the Russian effort, which are “at the core” of the dossier: to “dirty up the American democracy”; to damage Hillary Clinton in her candidacy because Russian President Vladimir Putin “personally hated” her; and “to help Donald Trump become elected president.” “Those allegations are at the core of the Steele dossier, and we alread... Link to the full article to read more