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.

Is This Legal?: Leftist Group Recruits Military Officials to Turn Against Trump’s Drug Cartel Strikes

FBI surges resources to Minnesota as Patel calls $250M fraud scheme ‘tip of iceberg’

Brits Weighed In on Whether Die Hard Is a Christmas Movie – Do You Agree with Them?

‘We are not afraid’: Erika Kirk vows TPUSA will continue campus debates nationwide

Crockett Flies Into a Rage Over Vance’s ‘Street-Girl Persona’ Comments

Unsung heroes of 2025: First responders and everyday Americans who saved lives across US

Opinion: This Lib Who Converted to MAGA Nails the Left’s Exact Plan to End America Using Just 5 Moves

The biggest losers of 2025: Who fell flat as the year closed

How Charlie Kirk learned to turn off the phone — and why the Sabbath shaped his life and posthumous book

Police Say Mom and Boyfriend Murdered 12-Year-Old, Lied to Continue Collecting Food Stamps

Head of America’s ‘free enterprise’ college optimistic about academia despite left-wing bias: ‘there is hope’

Trump, Zelenskyy to meet Sunday, as Ukrainian leader vows country will ‘do whatever it takes’ to end war

Tragic: Man Plunges 230 Feet to His Death During Ski Lift Collision with His Wife Sitting Next to Him

How drone warfare developed in Ukraine in 2025

Ranking the four best and four worst Trump administration Cabinet members

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.