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.

Senate GOP punts party-line budget fight until after August recess

Trump urges Jeanine Pirro to revisit dropped Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool vandalism case

More than 50 bodies found decomposing inside Chicago funeral home after neighbors complained of ‘stench’

Fed-Up NYC Homeowners Take to Court to Fight Back Against Mamdani’s New Tax ‘Debacle’

Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has security clearance revoked over Air Force One disclosure

Trump-Backed Rep. Andy Ogles Loses Primary After Green Energy Group Spent Big to Unseat Him

Chilling new video shows armed citizens, off-duty trooper confront In-N-Out gunman during deadly rampage

Violent Criminal Who Was Set Free on Plea Deal Arrested After Horrific Attacks on Random Women

‘No place like Mackinac’: Mike Rogers trolls Abdul el Sayed after hot mic moment emerges

Fox News Campus Radicals Newsletter: Duke Law’s alleged race-based admissions accused of defying Supreme Court

Do Americans Have to Obey Laws That Will Destroy Us? Thomas Jefferson Said Absolutely Not

Federal Appeals Court Orders Trump to Halt Ballroom Construction, Rules Project Is ‘For Congress to Decide’

Missing Illinois kayakers found dead near strait called Death’s Door known for shipwrecks

Former NBA Star Declares Entry Into WNBA Draft

Unearthed clip of El-Sayed revealing his ‘hate’ for iconic Michigan town sparks online firestorm: ‘Dark heart’

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.