I'm not reading tea leaves. I was waiting on the right moment to type this up. Everyone ignored the Grassley letter.
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(U) But there is substantial evidence suggesting that Mr. Steele materially misled the FBI about a key aspect of his dossier efforts, one which bears on his credibility.
(U) Similarly, in June 2017, former FBI Director Corney testified publicly before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that he had briefed President-Elect Trump on the dossier allegations in January 2017, which Mr. Corney described as "salacious" and "unverified."
In another sworn filing in that case, Mr. Steele further stated that journalists from "the New York Times, the Washington Post, Yahoo News, the New Yorker, and CNN" were "briefed at the end of September 2016 by [Steele] and Fusion at Fusion's instruction." 10 The filing fmther states that Mr. Steele "subsequently participated in further meetings at Fusion's instruction with Fusion and the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Yahoo News, which took place mid-October 2016." According to these court filings,. "[t]he briefings involved the disclosure of limited intelligence regarding indications of Russian interference in the US election process and the possible co-ordination of members of Trump's campaign team and Russian government officials." 12 In his interview with the Committee, Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS confirmed this account by Mr. Steele and his company as filed in the British court.
In fact, in the British litigation, which involves a post-election dossier memorandum, Mr. Steele admitted that he received and included in it unsolicited-and unverified-allegations. That filing implies that he similarly received unsolicited intelligence on these matters prior to the election as well, stating that Mr. Steele "continued to receive unsolicited intelligence on the matters covered by the pre-election memoranda after the US Presidential election. "
(U) One memorandum by Mr. Steele that was not published by Buzzfeed is dated October 19, 2016. The report alleges ______, as well as ______. Mr. Steele's memorandum states that his company "received this report from US State Department," that the report was the second in a series, and that the report was information that came from a fore~gn sub-source who "is in touch with , a contact of ______, a friend of the Clintons, who passed it to _____ ." It is troubling enough that the Clinton Campaign funded Mr. Steele's work, but that these Clinton associates were contemporaneously feeding Mr. Steele allegations raises additional concerns about his credibility.
"When asked at the March 2017 briefing why the FBI relied on the dossier in the FISA applications absent meaningful corroboration--and in light of the highly political motives surrounding its creation--then-Director Comey state that the FBI included the dossier allegations about Carter Page in the FISA applications because Mr. Steele himself was considered reliable due to his past work with the Bureau.
_____ Indeed, the documents we have reviewed show that the FBI took important investigative steps largely based on Mr. Steele's information--and relying heavily on his credibility. Specifically, on October 21, 2016, the FBI filed its first warrant application under FISA for Carter Page. ________ The bulk of the application consists of allegations against Page that were disclosed to the FBI by Mr. Steele and are also outlined in the Steele dossier. The application appears to contain no additional information corroborating the dossier allegations against Mr. Page, although it does cite a news article that appears to be sourced to Mr. Steele's dossier as well.
