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.

Georgetown Cupcake keg tosser suspected in second brazen M Street attack caught on video

Fmr Dem Rep Barney Frank, sharp-tongued liberal trailblazer, Dodd-Frank co-author dies

The red states charging ahead with America’s wealth as rivals watch billions slip away

Media Melts Down Over More White Afrikaners Coming to America as Refugees and We All Know Why

Leftists Are Spiraling After Thomas Massie’s Loss and Conservatives Should Take That as a Good Sign

Kentucky voters deliver verdict on Thomas Massie and more top headlines

Leftists Beg College Athletes to Ditch SEC Schools in States with Redistricting

Costco Recalls Popular Item After Person Suffers Second-Degree Burns

MTG says GOP’s future ‘destroyed’ after Trump-backed primary challenger defeats Thomas Massie in primary

Trump admin accuses Hamas of backing Gaza flotilla, sanctions activist and Muslim Brotherhood networks

Trump roils Senate GOP amid struggles with immigration bill

Meet the four Pennsylvania Democrats who could flip control of the House

Poland offering US ‘firsthand experience’ to help transition Cuba from communism

Georgia Republicans head to runoff in secretary of state race defined by 2020 election claims

DHS blasts California sanctuary policies after jail releases illegal immigrant accused in hit-and-run

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.