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.

Military families demand DOJ distribute nearly $800M from French cement company found guilty of bribing ISIS

Children’s YouTube Superstar Announces the Death of His 14-Year-Old Son

Kyle Busch 911 Call Released, Shedding New Light on His Shocking Death

Way harder than it should be: Why Congress may balk on $1.7B compensation fund

Grady Judd puts parents on notice over TikTok teen takeovers: ‘We’re gonna come lock you up too’

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani releases audit accusing federal immigration agents of misleading tactics

Republicans get ‘aggressive’ in fight to win top cop spots in battleground states

Georgetown Cupcake keg-throwing suspect turned in by his own father after recognizing surveillance footage

Trump ties himself to Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart during New York swing

Trump Admin Order Could Force Hundreds of Thousands of Foreigners to Leave the US

Trump Abruptly Cancels Plans to Attend Son’s Wedding, Heading Straight Back to DC

Judge dismisses human smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia

FBI launches ‘fittest agent’ competition for field offices

Warren torched over ‘my kind of man’ praise for Platner after death-wish post for wounded veteran resurfaces

Trump administration orders green card applicants to leave the US, apply from their home countries

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.