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.

Diesel Just Hit $5.90 a Gallon with Refineries Maxed Out: Winter Won’t Get Any Better

‘History Worth Teaching’: Trump Demands Smithsonian Replace Woke Modernist Nonsense Giant Statue of Washington

GOP women sound alarm as Lindsay Clancy backlash revives calls to repeal 19th Amendment: ‘Definitely a threat’

Burglar Armed with Submachine Gun Raids Missouri House: The Homeowner Sent Him Home in a Body Bag

Police Called to Kamala Harris’s Malibu Mansion After Unknown Woman ‘Illegally Entered’

With ‘Choosin’ Texas,’ we’re all choosin’ Ella Langley

Deep-pocketed donors flocked to the SPLC to heal America’s divisions. Did it pay off?

Vulnerable House Republicans embrace Trump as GOP bets on defying midterm history

Trump faces major test over appointing US attorneys without Senate approval

Black conservative reveals how GOP can lock down minority voters without Trump on ballot

Sweden’s right-wing government hoping nationalist-populist allies will hold back left-wing coalition

Wisconsin GOP governor candidate swims from sinking plane after emergency lake landing

Man accused in brutal motel stabbing sought as person of interest in 4 deaths, child attack

Florida woman accused of setting stranger on fire at gas station, leaving horrific burns

Knife-wielding man races at officer in packed seaside park before one deadly shot rings out: video

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.