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.

Gunasekara: How Trump EPA Upending Climate Scam Revives US Industry

Trump risks GOP midterm election prospects by vowing to stay the course on tariffs

Mel Gibson’s ‘Passion of the Christ’ Sequel Sets the Record Straight After Excommunicated Archbishop Spotted on Set: Report

Bureaucrats hide true price of Obama Presidential Center as taxpayers hit with infrastructure bill

Judge forces CA hospital to keep trans treatments for minors despite Trump funding threat

Anti-ICE church protesters insist case is not spreading conspiracy, requiring extensive evidence review

ICE arrests illegal immigrants convicted of child rape, sexual assault, drug trafficking

Former Connecticut police chief arrested for allegedly stealing $85K in public funds

CIA retracts, revises 19 past intelligence assessments deemed politically biased

Kentucky Lyft driver charged with sodomy, kidnapping now faces federal immigration detainer

Campus Radicals Newsletter: Teacher who lost job over 2-word post breaks silence, Chicago ‘racial segregation’

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Targeted attack’ vandalizes Trump-Kennedy Center outdoor ice rink, forces performance cancellation

Twisted: Little Girl Tells Mom She’s Afraid Trans Teacher Will Eat Her at Night, Then Mom Learns What He’s Telling Kindergartners at School

Repeat offender allegedly assaults hospital police officer just days after arrest at same facility: report

Crockett blasts ‘left’ for alleged skin darkening in ads as Texas Senate clash heats up

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.