In February 2016, as Christopher Steele's Russia-related contacts with the Department of Justice and FBI were ramping up, the former British spy emailed some intelligence reports from his Orbis security company to a potential private-sector client.
Steele's correspondence with the business associate is the latest piece of evidence suggesting the former British spy may not have been as well-versed or -sourced in Russian intelligence as he was portrayed when the FBI used his now-infamous anti-Trump dossier to support a request for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.Both the DOJ's inspector general and multiple committees in Congress are investigating whether the FBI properly handled the Trump-Russia collusion case or whether it fell prey to political pressure and shoddy investigative work, as congressional Republicans and himself claim.
If the FBI failed to perform the sort of due diligence required to ensure that Steele's expertise on Russia was reliable and that his dossier was verified, it would mark a massive failure in the FISA process.
From my earlier reporting, we know that former FBI lawyer Lisa Page told Congress this past summer that in May 2017 - seven months after the FISA warrant was issued, and nine months after the Russia probe was started - the FBI had not corroborated the main allegation in Steele's dossier about collusion between Moscow and the Trump.
Even Steele's former boss, Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, expressed uncertainty about some of the Russia intelligence Steele was providing.
The various expressions of uncertainty about the reliability of Steele's hearsay Russia intelligence give investigators solid reason to question if the FBI did its job in vetting his Russia expertise.
If the FBI had reviewed it and compared it to the CIA's own assessment, there might have been reason to doubt Steele's Russia expertise.
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/417535-questions-grow-about-fbi-vetting-of-christopher-steeles-russia-expertise
Steele's correspondence with the business associate is the latest piece of evidence suggesting the former British spy may not have been as well-versed or -sourced in Russian intelligence as he was portrayed when the FBI used his now-infamous anti-Trump dossier to support a request for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.Both the DOJ's inspector general and multiple committees in Congress are investigating whether the FBI properly handled the Trump-Russia collusion case or whether it fell prey to political pressure and shoddy investigative work, as congressional Republicans and himself claim.
If the FBI failed to perform the sort of due diligence required to ensure that Steele's expertise on Russia was reliable and that his dossier was verified, it would mark a massive failure in the FISA process.
From my earlier reporting, we know that former FBI lawyer Lisa Page told Congress this past summer that in May 2017 - seven months after the FISA warrant was issued, and nine months after the Russia probe was started - the FBI had not corroborated the main allegation in Steele's dossier about collusion between Moscow and the Trump.
Even Steele's former boss, Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, expressed uncertainty about some of the Russia intelligence Steele was providing.
The various expressions of uncertainty about the reliability of Steele's hearsay Russia intelligence give investigators solid reason to question if the FBI did its job in vetting his Russia expertise.
If the FBI had reviewed it and compared it to the CIA's own assessment, there might have been reason to doubt Steele's Russia expertise.
https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/417535-questions-grow-about-fbi-vetting-of-christopher-steeles-russia-expertise
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