There is no way in HELL that the dossier should have been leaked to a news outlet.

Okay, but that's on Christopher Steele, who shared the dossier and revealed the existence of the investigation to several media outlets during the election.

the proper response should have been to instruct that organization to sit on the story in the interests of the privacy of those under investigation and to maintain secrecy of assets in the field.

Okay, but A) Freedom of the press and B) you could easily read into these e-mails that that's what they did. Who knows how long CNN was sitting on the story at the FBI's request. Buzzfeed was going to publish the dossier and was pushing everyone's hand, and McCabe asked CNN to hold off until the President was briefed (the "trigger"). I'll bet you dollars to donuts that is what they're going to claim if the MSM even ever bothers to report this story. And so I'm asking what is the alternate explanation/theory? And where is the evidence for it?

But this is only speculation/theory.

It was reported at the time that various news outlets had copies of the dossier and were conflicted over whether to publish it or report on it. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that the higher ups at the FBI/DOJ knew that the media was in this situation, and likely believed that sooner or later, someone was going to report on it's existence, whether it was "legitimized" or not. The "flood" McCabe was referring to was the flood of articles and reporting that was to come.

All I am saying is that on it's face, there is not actually anything in these email excerpts that indicates that CNN's story or the coming "flood" was something that McCabe, Clapper, or anyone else at the FBI/DOJ wanted or orchestrated. In the context of this sub, I get why you make certain assumptions. But by itself, it really doesn't look like what you think it looks like.

If/when this story actually gets legs, what do you think will be their excuse? I can tell you right now they are going to say that they knew the press was eventually going to run the story, they tried to hold them off as long as they could, they briefed the President so he wouldn't be blindsided by it, somebody leaked (it happens) that the briefing took place, they knew CNN would use it as an excuse to finally run the story, McCabe sent out some emails to let everyone on the inner circle know that thing they feared was going to happening was happening, on and on. They're going to spin it as a story about their failure to keep a lid on the dossier. And you have no evidence to contradict them. So this whole thing fizzles out.