Dossier author Christopher Steele willing to meet with DOJ inspector general team

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Christopher Steele is reportedly willing to be interviewed by the Justice Department inspector general’s team that is conducting an investigation into alleged Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuses.

The British ex-spy, whose unverified dossier was used to obtain surveillance against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, has agreed to meet with U.S. officials if they come to London where he lives and runs an investigative firm called Orbis Business Intelligence, a source told the Sunday Times in the United Kingdom.

Steele is only willing to talk about his relationship with the FBI, for whom he was a confidential source, and wants the U.S. to get permission from the U.K. government first. The report came out as President Trump is in the country for a state visit.

As recently as April it was reported that Steele declined to meet with Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s team due to concerns about being undermined. Although he is coming around, Steele still appears dead set against meeting with officials connected to Attorney General William Barr’s investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation, led by U.S. Attorney John Durham.

Trump’s presidential order in late May stated that Barr was given “full and complete authority to declassify information” and ordered the intelligence community “to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities during the 2016 presidential election.” Barr, who has been working closely with Horowitz, said he picked Durham because he “was looking for someone who is tenacious, who is used to looking at sensitive material involving government activities, who has a reputation for being fair and evenhanded.”

The report says if Steele does take question from U.S. investigators, he would retain representation from a top American attorney for around £30,000, which is about $38,128.

The Washington Examiner has reached out to Orbis for comment.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that Horowitz has been asking witnesses about the FBI’s treatment of information provided by Steele, described as a “key source” for the FBI. Horowitz has been looking into potential Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse since early 2018 and is reportedly “homing in” on the potential misuse of Steele’s unverified dossier by the Justice Department and FBI.

Last week, Barr said that Horowitz is “looking at a discrete area … which is the use of electronic surveillance that was targeted at Carter Page.” Durham’s investigation is much broader.

Steele cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and submitted written testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee for its Russia inquiry.

Steele’s dossier, which was packed with unverified claims about Trump’s ties to Russia, formed a key part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications that were used to justify surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Steele was working for Fusion GPS, which received funding through the Perkins Coie law firm from the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Steele’s Democratic benefactors were not revealed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

According to a report from April, the FBI reached out to some of Steele’s foreign sources in an attempt to determine their credibility, and as early as January 2017 agents had concluded that some of the dossier’s contents may have been based on rumors. The agents believed that some of Steele’s information may have even been based on Russian disinformation.

Barr said last month that “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’s criticisms of the Steele dossier’s flaws come as former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and former FBI General Counsel James Baker have all defended their handling of the dossier in recent weeks.

Barr previously said that Horowitz’s investigation would be completed by the end of June, and Fox News host Sean Hannity said on Monday evening that sources were telling him that the Justice Department inspector general report might already be in Barr’s hands.

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