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FBI failed to review Steele's ties to Russians, warned some of dossier was Moscow disinformation
 [Just The News] Declassified footnote lays out intelligence community concerns about Steele's ties to Russia and disinformationKey FBI officials failed to review an intelligence file identifying Christopher Steele's ties to Russian oligarchs and were later advised some of the information he provided agents in his dossier appeared to be misinformation planted by Russian intelligence, according to declassified information made public Friday. The explosive revelations were contained in footnotes that had been originally redacted from Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz's December report on FBI failures in the Russia case. The information was provided to two Senate committees in recent days. One of the newly declassified footnotes highlights a glaring misstep early in the Russia case, when key officials failed to review the intelligence control file for Steele, a former MI6 agent who approached the FBI with unverified allegations about Trump after he was hired to do opposition research by the firm working for Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. Checking such files is a basic procedure in a counterintelligence probe when an informant is involved, officials told Just the News. Really no sense looking for that which you have no desire to find. The footnote states that an FBI intelligence analyst and a supervisory special agent working on the Crossfire Hurricane probe admitted they "did not recall reviewing information in Steele's Delta file documenting Steele's frequent contacts with representatives for multiple Russian oligarchs in 2015." "In addition to the information in Steele's Delta file documenting Steele's frequent contacts with representatives for multiple Russian oligarch, we identified reporting the Crossfire Hurricane team received [redacted] indicating the potential for Russia disinformation influencing Steele's election reporting," a second footnote revealed. Specifically, that footnote added: "A [redacted] 2017 report relayed information from [redacted] outlining an inaccuracy in a limited subset of Steele's reporting about the activities of (former Trump lawyer) Michael Cohen. The [redacted] stated that it did not have high confidence in this subset of Steele's reporting and assessed that the referenced subset was part of a Russian disinformation campaign to denigrate U.S. foreign relations." Related: Christopher Steele: 2020-04-06 John Durham investigation intensifies focus on John Brennan Christopher Steele: 2020-03-16 Former NSC official: UK intelligence helped Obama team on collusion probe Christopher Steele: 2020-03-12 FBI's Russia collusion case fell apart in first month of Trump presidency, memos show Posted by: Frank G 2020-04-11 |
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