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.

Personal attacks, Israel, and terrorism define Michigan’s caustic Senate debate

ABC News Targets Trump Family, But Has to Immediately Delete False Story – Was Off by Billions of Dollars

California Medical Breakthroughs Bring In Hundreds of Millions While the Very Same Industry Suffers Substantial Job Loss

Evil Among Us: Watch as Satanic Prayer Opens City Council Meeting, But One Brave Man on Camera Refuses to Go Along

Mike Johnson Snags Record-Breaking Fundraising Haul to Power Republicans Into Midterm Homestretch

Federal grand jury hears evidence in probe of former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s Jan 6 testimony: source

Michigan Senate debate erupts into personal attacks as Rogers, El-Sayed clash over Israel, Iran and more

El Sayed dodges question on whether Israel or Iran poses greater threat to US: ‘Both of them have proven dangerous in their own way’

Letitia James Hit with 52-Count ‘Indictment’ from Her Republican Opponent

Fauci raved about China but fumed at Trump in diary

Arizona man arrested after allegedly emailing White House bomb threat to Tucson news station

Bombshell: New Text from Cornell Rape Accuser Contains 4 Case-Killing Words – ‘Our Body Our Choice’ – Media Omits Them All

Logan Federico’s dad says criminals have become ‘more important’ than victims, pushes repeat offender registry

Pentagon confirms Fort Hood terrorist’s firing squad execution will be livestreamed: ‘Details will follow’

Dem who ripped rival’s donor-fueled ‘good life’ dropped campaign cash on Disney, spouse travel

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.