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[UPDATED, with additional reporting, clarifications and corrections on elements of the so-called Steele Dossier and John Durham indictment.]

I bet I’m not the only journalist with Don Henley’s iconic 1982 hit,  Dirty Laundry, swirling in their head this week, as the fortunes of former MI6 agent Christopher Steele and his so-called dossier disintegrate. 

There’s that killer chorus: 

Kick 'em when they're up

Kick 'em when they're down

Kick 'em when they're stiff

Kick 'em all around

It’s been Steele’s turn for some time now. The veracity of his “intelligence reports” on Donald Trump and Russia has been eroded by a steady stream of revelations over the past several months. But a truly staggering blow came Friday when The Washington Post admitted to having been misled by Steele’s sourcing. Executive Editor Sally Buzbee, in office only since May, ordered the removal of large chunks of Post stories from 2017 and 2019 that had identified a Belarusian-born U.S. businessman, Sergei Millian, as the so…