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.

Microsoft AI Chief Says Artificial Intelligence Will Do Most White-Collar Work by Next Year

Cities Church Defendant Who Likes Terrorizing Christian Children Launches Bizarre Message Outside Courtroom

Rubio breaks with Vance in tone of Munich address and tells Europe ‘we belong together’

SWAT swarms locations near Nancy Guthrie’s home as DNA found on property

Jasmine Crockett: ‘If I Go to Sleep, Democracy Very Well May Die’

Top Goldman Sachs Lawyer Quits Over Epstein Relationship, Media Glosses Over Her Connection to Obama

Conservative firebrand launches ‘TruckSafe Tipline’ to report illegal drivers amid spike in highway deaths

‘It’s absurd’: DHS shutdown bears down on US as lawmakers jet off to Europe

Cal State prof warns scrapping SAT in name of ‘inclusivity’ is leaving students unprepared

Ted Bundy’s cousin recalls the chilling moment that exposed the monster within

Here’s how the DHS shutdown could impact the lives of everyday Americans

Democrats test ‘Epstein class’ attack line against Trump’s orbit

‘Fiction’: House Republican campaign chair dismisses Democrats’ expanding GOP target map

Beloved figure skating coach, former Team USA medalist gunned down in Starbucks drive-thru: reports

Government shutdown hits DHS after Democrats blow up bipartisan funding deal over immigration uproar

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.