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 We Know About the African and Extremely Likely Jihadist Mass Shooter in Austin

Radical US mosques honor Iran’s Supreme Leader’s ‘martyrdom’ with memorial services, eulogy: ‘Our leader’

Bill Clinton reveals Trump ‘never said anything’ linking himself to Epstein’s crimes

WWII Hero Awarded Medal of Honor for Refusing to ID Jewish Americans While at Gunpoint: ‘We Are All Jews’

15 Months Ago It Was Leftists’ Mecca – Now the Dept. of Education Just Unfurled a Banner Featuring the Left’s Most-Hated Enemy After Trump

Starmer fires back at Trump over Iran ‘unlawful action’

PHOTOS: Usha Vance talks child literacy at hospital reading event

WATCH: Hillary Clinton storms out of Epstein deposition after House lawmaker leaks photo from inside

WATCH: House releases Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Epstein deposition videos

Fetterman blasts Iran strike critics, Ayatollah’s apologists: ‘Let’s see who grieves for that garbage’

This Chicago School Is 92% Empty and Spends $93k Per Student – You’ll Be Sick to Learn How Many of Them Read Proficiently

Man accused of luring UGA student with ‘walk home’ ruse before brutal assault: police

Texas college student identified among victims in Austin bar shooting probed as possible terror attack

Hegseth on Iran Strikes: People ‘Hell-Bent on Prophetic Islamist Delusions Cannot Have Nuclear Weapons’

Trump says US sank 10 ships in Iran strike, ‘last, best chance’ to act

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.