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.

Federal judge blocks New York law banning ICE agents from wearing masks

Unearthed video exposes El-Sayed’s opinion on driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants

Watch: New Women’s Pro Baseball League Begins With ‘Worst Anthem Rendition of All Time’

Knoxville Mayor Shares Chilling 2020 Talk When Deborah Birx Admitted the Truth Didn’t Matter When It Came to the Science

Watch: 4 of the Most Intense Exchanges When RFK Jr. Put CNN’s Dana Bash in Her Place on COVID and Fauci

Democrats blink as Schumer helps GOP clear key shutdown hurdle

Trump Says ‘Last Chance’ Talks with Iran Are ‘Going on Right Now’

‘Doctor’ El-Sayed’s bizarre health hustle raises campaign headache: ‘Moon Juice Brain Dust’

Trump administration’s immigration push fuels ICE’s biggest arrest month in agency history

Citadel cadet, childhood friend gunned down in vacant Florida lot as police launch manhunt

State Department denies call with under-pressure FIFA president Infantino

Trump says Jeanine Pirro ‘choked’ in Reflecting Pool vandalism case: ‘Folded like an umbrella’

Dem senator accuses Pentagon of murder with boat strikes targeting drug traffickers

GOP lawmaker’s gifts, ‘effusive affection’ toward young staffers detailed in explosive ethics report

Muslim Assailants Kill Church Elder, At Least 20 Other Christians, In Targeted Attacks

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.