A high-level dispute over which senior government officials pushed the unverified Steele dossier amid efforts to surveil the Trump campaign has broken out into the open again, after it emerged that Attorney General William Barr appointed a U.S. attorney to examine the origins of the Russia investigation and determine if the FBI and DOJ’s actions were “lawful and appropriate.”
Sources familiar with the records told Fox News that a late-2016 email chain indicated then-FBI Director James Comey told bureau subordinates that then-CIA Director John Brennan insisted the dossier be included in the intelligence community assessment on Russian interference, known as the ICA.
Fox News was told that the email chain – not yet public — referred to the dossier as “crown material,” but it was not clear why this apparent code was used. On Tuesday night, former GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy said on Fox News’ “The Story with Martha MacCallum” that “Comey has a better argument than Brennan, based on what I’ve seen.”
A day earlier, Gowdy told Fox News, “Whoever is looking into this, tell them to look into emails” from December 2016 involving Brennan and Comey. Gowdy, who is now a Fox News contributor, said his assessment was based on sensitive Russia records he reviewed as then-chairman of the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.
But in a statement to Fox News, a former CIA official put the blame squarely on Comey.
Watch: Fireworks as Black Student and Talarico Voters Meet – Begin Hating, Attacking Each Other in Seconds
Coworker accused of slashing woman’s throat during ride home, victim escaped moving car: police
Ouch: ‘Saturday Night Live’ Turns Jelly Roll Into a Punchline
DNC Chair Ken Martin defends ‘Big Tent’ strategy when pressed on democratic socialists
Mamdani unveils sweeping NYPD use-of-force review, but stops short of fulfilling key campaign promises
Retired police sergeant shoots deputy chief wife and their daughter in wealthy, coastal enclave home
Ilhan Omar Tries to Talk Tough in Response to DHS Raid, But One Glaring Detail Betrays Her Cowardice
Keep Paying Up to 27% – Or Take Two Minutes to Check If You Qualify for 0%
Hackers target refrigerators at French supermarkets, overheating them and causing fires
Ilhan Omar says she will ‘not be silenced’ following raid on Washington home
Biden-appointed judge with history of fiery Trump clashes erupts at DOJ: ‘You’ve lost all credibility!’
AIPAC takes another shot at el Sayed and hands Rogers a political gamble in Michigan Senate race
Republican lawmakers break with Trump on diesel deal with Russia
Federal agents conduct predawn search of Ilhan Omar’s home in Washington
Watch: Talarico Said He Went to Urgent Care, Now Says He Went to His Doctor 200 Miles Away – What Do We Know?
“Former Director Brennan, along with former [Director of National Intelligence] James Clapper, are the ones who opposed James Comey’s recommendation that the Steele Dossier be included in the intelligence report,” the official said.
“They opposed this because the dossier was in no way used to develop the ICA,” the official continued. “The intelligence analysts didn’t include it when they were doing their work because it wasn’t corroborated intelligence, therefore it wasn’t used and it wasn’t included. Brennan and Clapper prevented it from being added into the official assessment. James Comey then decided on his own to brief Trump about the document.”
Fox News has reached out to Comey’s legal team twice, and provided the statement from the former CIA official, but did not receive a reply on the record.
In March, Republican Sen. Rand Paul leveled similar allegations on Twitter, citing a “high-level source” who said Brennan had “insisted that the unverified and fake Steele dossier” be included in the January 2017 ICA.
Watch: Fireworks as Black Student and Talarico Voters Meet – Begin Hating, Attacking Each Other in Seconds
Coworker accused of slashing woman’s throat during ride home, victim escaped moving car: police
Ouch: ‘Saturday Night Live’ Turns Jelly Roll Into a Punchline
DNC Chair Ken Martin defends ‘Big Tent’ strategy when pressed on democratic socialists
Mamdani unveils sweeping NYPD use-of-force review, but stops short of fulfilling key campaign promises
Retired police sergeant shoots deputy chief wife and their daughter in wealthy, coastal enclave home
Ilhan Omar Tries to Talk Tough in Response to DHS Raid, But One Glaring Detail Betrays Her Cowardice
Keep Paying Up to 27% – Or Take Two Minutes to Check If You Qualify for 0%
Hackers target refrigerators at French supermarkets, overheating them and causing fires
Ilhan Omar says she will ‘not be silenced’ following raid on Washington home
Biden-appointed judge with history of fiery Trump clashes erupts at DOJ: ‘You’ve lost all credibility!’
AIPAC takes another shot at el Sayed and hands Rogers a political gamble in Michigan Senate race
Republican lawmakers break with Trump on diesel deal with Russia
Federal agents conduct predawn search of Ilhan Omar’s home in Washington
Watch: Talarico Said He Went to Urgent Care, Now Says He Went to His Doctor 200 Miles Away – What Do We Know?
Clapper previously testified that the dossier was not ultimately used in the ICA. News that Comey had briefed Trump personally on the dossier before the inauguration — purportedly to warn him of potential blackmail threats — leaked within days and opened the door for media outlets to publicize the dossier’s lurid claims.
Whether the FBI acted appropriately in obtaining the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to Trump campaign aide Carter Page is now the subject not only of U.S. Attorney John Durham’s new probe, but also the ongoing review by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber has been conducting his own investigation separately, although details of his progress were unclear.
As one example, in its FISA application, the bureau repeatedly and incorrectly assured the court in a footnote that it “does not believe” British ex-spy Christopher Steele was the direct source for a Yahoo News article implicating Page in Russian collusion, and instead asserted that the Yahoo article provided an independent basis to believe Steele.
Steele has told a British court that he briefed multiple news organizations during the fall of 2016 — including Yahoo News.
Gowdy’s remarks echoed Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” this past weekend that he was pushing to declassify documents that would expose the FBI’s poor efforts to corroborate the dossier.
“There’s a document that’s classified that I’m gonna try to get unclassified that takes the dossier — all the pages of it — and it has verification to one side,” Graham said. “There really is no verification, other than media reports that were generated by reporters that received the dossier.”
Watch: Fireworks as Black Student and Talarico Voters Meet – Begin Hating, Attacking Each Other in Seconds
Coworker accused of slashing woman’s throat during ride home, victim escaped moving car: police
Ouch: ‘Saturday Night Live’ Turns Jelly Roll Into a Punchline
DNC Chair Ken Martin defends ‘Big Tent’ strategy when pressed on democratic socialists
Mamdani unveils sweeping NYPD use-of-force review, but stops short of fulfilling key campaign promises
Retired police sergeant shoots deputy chief wife and their daughter in wealthy, coastal enclave home
Ilhan Omar Tries to Talk Tough in Response to DHS Raid, But One Glaring Detail Betrays Her Cowardice
Keep Paying Up to 27% – Or Take Two Minutes to Check If You Qualify for 0%
Hackers target refrigerators at French supermarkets, overheating them and causing fires
Ilhan Omar says she will ‘not be silenced’ following raid on Washington home
Biden-appointed judge with history of fiery Trump clashes erupts at DOJ: ‘You’ve lost all credibility!’
AIPAC takes another shot at el Sayed and hands Rogers a political gamble in Michigan Senate race
Republican lawmakers break with Trump on diesel deal with Russia
Federal agents conduct predawn search of Ilhan Omar’s home in Washington
Watch: Talarico Said He Went to Urgent Care, Now Says He Went to His Doctor 200 Miles Away – What Do We Know?
Graham cited a report from The Hill’s John Solomon that the FBI was told expressly that Steele, the bureau’s confidential informant, had admitted to a State Department contact he was “keen” to leak his discredited dossier for purposes of influencing the 2016 election.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec’s written account of her meeting with Steele on Oct. 11, 2016, was sent to the FBI prior to the bureau’s FISA warrant application to monitor Page, according to records unearthed in a transparency lawsuit by Citizens United.
Story cited here.
