Donald Trump told a midterms rally crowd that former First Lady Melania Trump didn’t believe the salacious allegations in the Steele dossier, the infamous and now mostly-debunked research file from former British spy Christopher Steele about the Trump campaign’s alleged contacts with Russia.
The research, funded by the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee, claimed among other things that Mr Trump paid prostitutes in Moscow to urinate on a hotel bed Barack and Michelle Obama had once used.
“It wasn’t good for me to go home that night and explain to the First Lady,” Mr Trump said at a rally on Monday night supporting GOP Senate candidate JD Vance. “That was not a good dossier.”
“JD, you never want to have to do that,” the former president said with a smile, addressing the Ohio Republican. “Never. That was not good.”
Mr Trump, famously germaphobic, said his wife didn’t believe the allegations.
“She said to me, ‘I know that’s not your thing,’” Mr Trump said. “You know why? Because I’m a germ freak.”
In March, the Federal Election Commission fined the Clinton campaign and the DNC for not properly disclosing the more than $1m it funneled into the research.
The Democrats funded the research through law firm Perkins Coie, which hired research outfit Fusion GPS, the group that then tasked Mr Steele to pursue his research.
The former intelligence agent has maintained that his work was unverified, warranted further investigation, and wasn’t meant for public consumption.
However, the contents of the dossier leaked in January 2017, just as Mr Trump was set to take office.
In October, the trial of Igor Danchenko, a Russia analyst whose allegations helped create the dossier, began.
Prosecutors allege Mr Danchenko lied to the FBI when the agency interviewed the analyst in 2017 as it tried to verify the allegations in the dossier.
Officials say the analyst fabricated an alleged anonymous phone call thought to have come from Sergei Millian, a former head of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce, and falsely claimed he never spoke with Charles Dolan, a Democratic operative.
The analyst has maintained he was always truthful with the government.
Despite beginning six years ago, “Russiagate” continues to influence US politics.
Earlier this week, a key Putin ally admitted openly for the first time that Russia interfered in US elections and “will continue to interfere”.
