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Byron York: FBI fights public release of Trump dossier info
 [Wash Examiner] Senate investigators have had problems getting the FBI to reveal information about the Trump dossier. They're not the only ones. Outside groups filing Freedom of Information Act requests are running up against a stone wall when it comes to the dossier.On March 8, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA request for documents regarding the bureau's contacts with Christopher Steele, the former British spy who dug for dirt in Russia on candidate Donald Trump in the months before the 2016 presidential election. Steele's effort was commissioned by the oppo research firm Fusion GPS, which at the time was being paid by still-unidentified Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton. Just weeks before the election, the FBI reportedly agreed to support Steele's oppo project -- an extraordinary action in the midst of a campaign which Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said raised "questions about the FBI's independence from politics." So Judicial Watch asked the Justice Department for: Any and all records of communications between any official, employee, or representative of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Mr. Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer and the owner of the private firm Orbis Business Intelligence. The idea was that the records would shed light on the basic questions regarding the dossier. Just what did the FBI do? Why? And -- this is very important to Grassley -- did the FBI ever use the "salacious and unverified" (the words of former FBI Director James Comey) information in the dossier as a basis for applying for warrants to put Americans under surveillance? The Justice Department's response to Judicial Watch was simple: No. And not just no: The Department would not even confirm or deny whether any such documents or communications even existed. So on May 16, Judicial Watch filed suit, seeking to force release of the information. In response, the department told Judicial Watch to forget about it. "Plaintiff's claims are moot," Justice lawyers wrote, "because Defendant has notified Plaintiff of its decision to neither confirm nor deny the existence of any responsive records, and the reasons for that decision." Posted by: Besoeker 2017-09-01 |
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