The only thing that is certain at this point is that this report of Russian involvement in our campaign process has caused a lot of chaos. Speculation is running rampant as news outlets try to verify as much of it as possible.
As with any story of this nature there is a grain of truth to hang the rest of the allegations on, just enough to make them sound believable. However, among these grains of truth are things we have personally witnessed such as Trump's unwavering and inexplicable admiration of Putin. This is well documented and has been one of the more consistent positions held by Trump. Paul Manafort had close ties to Putin leaning factions in Ukraine and was forced to resign, remember that?
At least one claim said to have been made in some of these documents has been verified to be false. That was a person, time, date and location that was claimed to have been in a secret meeting in Prague with Russian agents at some point. It has been verified, according to reports on NBC this morning that at that time the person was actually in southern California. Well, that's one down and how many to go? Every last one of the allegations may be disproven but this news is 1) now causing a lot of chaos in our system, and 2) was thought to be of such relevance or importance to be included in the two page summary given to both President Obama and President Elect Trump in their meetings with our top intelligence people.
The Guardian can confirm that the documents reached the top of the FBI by December. Senator John McCain, who was informed about the existence of the documents separately by an intermediary from a western allied state, dispatched an emissary overseas to meet the source and then decided to present the material to Comey in a one-on-one meeting on 9 December, according to a source aware of the meeting. The documents, which were first reported on last year by Mother Jones, are also in the hands of officials in the White House.
McCain is not thought to have made a judgment on the reliability of the documents but was sufficiently impressed by the source’s credentials to feel obliged to pass them to the FBI.
The Senate armed services committee, which Senator McCain chairs, launched an inquiry last week into Russian cyber-attacks during the election.
McCain was reluctant to get involved, according to a colleague, for fear the issue would be dismissed as a personal grudge against Trump. He pushed instead for the creation of a special Senate committee to look into connections between campaign staff and Moscow, but the proposal was blocked by the Republican leadership.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/10/fbi-chief-given-dossier-by-john-mccain-alleging-secret-trump-russia-contacts