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.

National Guard deployment tallies up $49 million in food costs alone

Man Who Took Explosives to Mass for SCOTUS Justices Gets Mindboggling Sentence Thanks to Obama Judge

Loyal dog fetches police to help owner who fell at Kansas home

Sotomayor denies mom’s bid to get son into elite NYC school amid racial discrimination fight

Ranchers are furious about diesel prices and beef imports. Could it cost Republicans a Senate seat in Kansas?

Biden DOJ Senior Prosecutor Hit with Criminal Referral Amid ‘Troubling if True’ Allegations

Christa Pike was set to be the first woman to be executed in Tennessee in 200 years before botched attempts: What to know

Former Arizona fraternity leader sentenced to jail time after pledge dies in off-campus hazing

FAA breaks controller hiring record after chief warned system was ‘chronically understaffed’

Biden-era federal prosecutor hit with criminal investigation referral over alleged false statements to FBI

States leading nation on the biggest education battles gripping classrooms revealed in first-ever report

Bipartisan data center bill fractures Democrats ahead of midterm elections

1 missing, 4 rushed to hospital after helicopter crashes off Southern California island

Arizona sheriff’s helicopter crew rescues man stranded atop overturned truck in rapidly rising floodwaters

TikTok couple charged with arson after house fire causes $10K in damage

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.