Claims have resurfaced that the FBI offered the British spy behind the ‘golden showers’ dirty dossier $50,000 to corroborate his claims about now-President Donald Trump.
‘I believe, just from examining the public sources, that the FBI offered Christopher Steele $50,000 if he could corroborate the dossier. He either couldn’t, didn’t, wouldn’t, and they didn’t pay him the money,’ news analyst Andrew Napolitano told Stuart Varney on Fox Business Monday.
Former MI6 agent Steele’s dossier claims the Russians possess compromising information that could be used to blackmail Trump, and alleges the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.
Napolitano appears to be basing his claim on an April report from the New York Times, which cited two sources claiming that an FBI agent met Steele in Rome in October of 2016, just weeks before the presidential election.
The agent offered Steele $50,000 if he could get ‘solid corroboration of his reports’, which the FBI ultimately never paid out, the report said.
Last week, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein refused to tell the House Judiciary Committee whether the FBI had paid or offered to pay for the dossier.
Claims have resurfaced that the FBI offered British spy Christopher Steele (pictured) $50,000 to corroborate his claims about now-President Donald Trump in the ‘dirty dossier’
Last week, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (pictured) refused to tell the House Judiciary Committee whether the FBI had paid or offered to pay for the dossier
Steele’s dossier claims the Russians possess compromising information that could be used to blackmail Trump, and alleges the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the election
‘I’m not in a position to answer that question,’ Rosenstein replied during the oversight hearing.
Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis followed up by asking, ‘Do you know the answer to the question?’
Rosenstein replied: ‘I believe I know the answer, but the Intelligence Committee is the appropriate committee…’ before the Congressman cut him off.
Republicans have accused the FBI of improperly basing wiretap requests for the Trump campaign on the dossier written by Steele, a former British intelligence investigator who was hired by the firm Fusion GPS to do opposition research for the Democrats.
To date, however, there has been no evidence to suggest the FBI wiretaps were improperly obtained.
Questions over the FBI’s alleged offer to pay a foreign citizen for dirt on a presidential candidate have been mounting in recent days, as Republicans have dialed up their criticism of the Bureau’s integrity.
The questions over the FBI’s integrity come as Special Counsel Robert Mueller nears completion on his probe into alleged Russian meddling in the election.
Republicans are increasingly questioning the impartiality of Special Counsel Robert Mueller (pictured), after it emerged that a former member of Mueller’s team had bashed Trump
FBI agent Peter Strzok (left) was removed from probe when it was found he had exchanged text messages with a mistress, fellow agent Lisa Page (right), disparaging Trump
Strzok’s texts even mentioned an ‘insurance policy’ in the event that Trump was elected
Mueller has charged four people from Trump’s inner circle since October, though he has yet to produce evidence that Trump colluded with Russia during the election.
The most recent questions over whether the Muller team has a political bias against Trump emerged earlier this month, after FBI agent Peter Strzok was removed from probe.
It emerged that Strzok had exchanged text messages with a mistress disparaging Trump and supporting Clinton.
The texts even mentioned an ‘insurance policy’ in the event that Trump was elected.
Strzok exchanged the messages with another member of Mueller’s team, Lisa Page.
The two were having an extramarital affair that the DOJ worried could make them both subject to blackmail.
Strzok was involved in both the Clinton email and Russia investigations.
Earlier this month, a Republican Congressman grilled FBI Director Christopher Wray on whether Strzok had used Steele’s ‘dirty dossier’ to prepare a warrant application asking for authorization to wiretap the Trump campaign.
‘Did Peter Strzok help produce and present the application to the FISA court to secure a warrant to spy on Americans associated with the Trump campaign?’ asked Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
‘Congressman, I’m not prepared to discuss anything about a FISA process,’ Wray replied.