Barr: ‘Very Unusual’ For FBI To Rely On Steele Dossier Given ‘Clear Mistakes’

Attorney General William Barr said in an interview that aired Friday that he is investigating what role the Steele dossier played in the Russia probe, and that the salacious document had “a number of clear mistakes.”

“It’s a very unusual situation to have opposition research like that, especially one that on its face had a number of clear mistakes and a somewhat jejune analysis,” Barr told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer.

“And to use that to conduct counterintelligence against an American political campaign is a strange — would be strange development.”

In the interview, Barr spoke at length about an inquiry he launched at the Justice Department into the origins of the Russia investigation. He told The Wall Street Journal in an interview that the investigation is also focusing on what information U.S. intelligence agencies gathered on Trump campaign associates before the FBI formally opened its investigation in July 2016.

What the Data Actually Says About Abortion and Women’s Health

California’s New Congressional Maps Favoring Dems Could Be Struck Down by the Supreme Court: Report

Breaking: OJ Simpson Witness and LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman Dead at 74

Report: Immigrants Are Voluntarily Leaving US in Record Numbers Under Trump

DC Bar lawyer withdraws from Ed Martin disciplinary case after partisan posts surface

Hegseth unleashes on Massie in GOP primary showdown against Trump-backed Navy SEAL vet

Austin shooting suspect named, timeline of terror revealed after teens’ alleged 28-hour, 12-attack rampage

Mark Fuhrman, detective at center of OJ Simpson murder trial, dead at 74

Senate Republicans confirm nearly 50 of Trump’s picks for energy, land management

WATCH: Mamdani bashed for going ‘full deranged marxist’ with rip on famous Ronald Reagan line

Breaking: 2 Shooters at California Islamic Center Neutralized – Multiple Causalities Confirmed

Trump Sends First of Its Kind Message to ‘Rededicate 250’ Attendees Who Flooded the National Mall to Recommit America to God

Skid Row election scheme allegedly fueled by pocket-change payoffs busted by Trump DOJ

WATCH: Eye-popping illegal immigration stat prompts senator’s demand to ‘redouble’ deportations

Senate Republican threatens to derail ICE, Border Patrol package over Trump’s billion-dollar request

The FBI relied heavily on the Steele dossier, which was funded by the DNC and Clinton campaign, to obtain surveillance warrants against Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser. But Republicans have accused the FBI of misleading the surveillance court by relying on the dossier given that its allegations were unverified.

Christopher Steele, a former British spy, claimed in the dossier that the Trump campaign was involved in a “well-developed conspiracy of co-operation” with the Russian government to influence the 2016 election. He alleged that Page and other Trump associates, like Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen, were at the center of the scheme.

But the special counsel’s report all but debunked the dossier’s central thesis, while dismissing one specific allegation about Cohen. The report said that prosecutors were unable to establish a conspiracy between the Trump team and Russia. It also said that Cohen did not visit Prague in August 2016, which is where the dossier claimed the former Trump lawyer went to pay off Russian hackers.

Steele and his client, Fusion GPS, shopped the dossier around to numerous journalists. Steele also provided memos from his dossier to the FBI and State Department.

Barr told Hemmer that the answers he has received so far about the origins of the investigations “aren’t sufficient.” He is reportedly working with the directors of the CIA, FBI and Office of National Intelligence on the inquiry.