Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence agent who compiled the hoax dossier alleging ties between President Donald Trump and Russia, refuses to cooperate with the Department of Justice’s investigation into the origins of the Obama administration’s spying on then-candidate Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, according to Reuters.
A Reuters source close to Steele’s private investigation outfit, Orbis Business Intelligence, said the ex-spy has chosen not to answer questions from Connecticut’s U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was recently appointed by Attorney General William Barr to examine the probe’s origins. Reports of Steele’s unwillingness to cooperate with the Justice Department comes days after President Trump gave Barr authority to declassify intelligence materials related to the probe and ordered several law enforcement agencies, including the CIA and FBI to cooperate with Durham’s review.
In 2016, Steele was hired by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS tasked by attorneys for the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign to dig up dirt on President Trump. Steele’s dossier was used by the FBI to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to surveil members of the Trump campaign, namely, onetime Trump campaign foreign policy advisor Carter Page. FBI officials did not disclose explicitly to the FISA court that the dossier was paid for by the DNC or the Clinton campaign. However, the bureau did indicate that the document was produced as opposition research.
Who the Anti-ICE Crowd Is Defending: ‘Monster’ Illegal Hit Third-Grade Girl with Baseball-Sized Stone
‘The View’ Co-Host Whines About Trump Showing Photos of Rapist, Murderer Illegals Because of Their Skin Color
Millions go without power as Russia launches barrage at Ukraine during peace talks
Parents’ relentless hunt for missing daughter heats up as new tech breathes life into case
Pentagon Contractor Indicted for Leaking Classified Info to the Washington Post
Trump warns Canada of 100% tariffs if it becomes China’s ‘drop off port’ with new potential trade deal
Legal Analyst: There Are Still Several Ways Pam Bondi Can Charge Don Lemon for His Conduct
Campus Radicals: Union member tell-all, Dems back to DEI ways, more violent leftist threats on campus
Trump takes aim at Senate ‘blue slip’ tradition as GOP resists change
House candidate predicts historic rise of ‘new generation’ in Congress as parties target key demographic
The Tide Has Turned on DEI in Nearly Every Major Institution, But Teachers and Educators Refuse to Ditch It
Hawaii RNC members pay their way to represent state: ‘It’s not a cheap hobby’
Cruz back in Texas after photo of him boarding plane sparks backlash ahead of winter storm
‘I Went to Princeton and Harvard!’: Michelle Obama Complains About Being Known as ‘Barack Obama’s Wife’
Johnson warns House Republicans to ‘stay healthy’ as GOP majority shrinks to the edge
In a recent interview with the Fox News Channel, Barr said his department is examining if “government officials abused their power and put their thumb on the scale” at the start of the FBI’s counterintelligence operation.
“I’ve been trying to get answers to the questions, and I’ve found that a lot of the answers have been inadequate, and some of the explanations I’ve gotten don’t hang together. In a sense, I have more questions today than when I first started,” the attorney general told anchor Bill Hemmer.
“The source close to Steele’s company said Steele would not cooperate with Durham’s probe but might cooperate with a parallel inquiry by the Justice Department’s Inspector General into how U.S. law enforcement agencies handled pre-election investigations into both Trump and Clinton,” according to Reuters.
Story cited here.
