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.

Latin Kings gang member accused of vandalizing FBI vehicle, stealing government property in Minneapolis

Suspect accused of killing sleeping passenger on Chicago train filmed himself carrying out attack: prosecutors

Noem names Charles Wall ICE deputy director following Sheahan resignation

Tom Homan offers to pull ICE from Minneapolis ‘real quick’ upon access to jails

WATCH: ICE takes down illegal alien who allegedly rammed law enforcement vehicles, nearly running over officer

Trump’s tariffs could be undone by one conservative doctrine: ‘Life or death’

As Trump Contemplates Invoking the Insurrection Act Against Minnesota, Washington’s Example as President Is Instructive

Florida teens buried alive in deadly sand tunnel collapse

Women’s sports on the line as Supreme Court wrestles with defining ‘sex’

Massachusetts town faces lawsuit for allowing criminal immigrant, sex offender to renew business license

Irony Alert: Pro-Illegal Immigration Minneapolis Mayor Says City Has Been ‘Invaded’ by ICE Agents Who Don’t Share Local ‘Values’

EXCLUSIVE: HUD launches civil rights probe into Minneapolis over race-based housing priorities

Renee Good’s Family Hires Legal Team That Represented George Floyd’s Family

17 College Basketball Players Charged with Fixing Games

Biden DHS’s purchase of weapon linked to Havana Syndrome attacks leads House Republicans to demand answers

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.