The FBI continued to use the ‘dodgy dossier’ of British ex-spy Christopher Steele to renew court warrants targeting Donald Trump, despite accepting the Brit’s apparent bias against the president.
The partially redacted documents, first obtained by Judicial Watch, revealed that the FBI appeared to ignore the red flags against Steele to apply for multiple Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court warrants.
They also show that leading Justice Department official Bruce Ohr kept in contact with Steele for at least six months after the British ex-spy was fired by the FBI for unauthorized media contacts in November 2016.
Ohr knew of Steele’s anti-Trump bias before the 2016 election, according to the newly-revealed records.
Leading Justice Department official Bruce Ohr (right) kept in contact with Steele for at least six months after the British ex-spy was fired by the FBI for unauthorized media contacts in November 2016
Nine days before the FBI applied for its FISA warrant, a senior Justice Department official expressed ‘continued concerns’ about the bias of a source pivotal to the application, according to internal FBI text messages.
However, the warrant application, targeting Donald Trump, went through in October 2016 before being renewed multiple times.
The FBI is legally obliged to tell the FISA court about any evidence that could help the defendant when applying for a surveillance warrant.
But it appears that Steele’s bias was never shared with the FISA court.
In fact, on four occasions, the FBI told the FISA court that it ‘did not believe’ Steele was the source behind a Yahoo News article implicating former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page in alleged collusion with Russian officials.
This comes despite FBI interviews showing that by November 2016, before several FISA warrant renewals, the agency had connected Steele with the Yahoo News article.
Furthermore, London court records show that Steele briefed Yahoo News and other reporters in the fall of 2016, at the direction of Fusion GPS.
House Oversight Committee ranking member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News : ‘Why do you terminate your direct relationship with Christopher Steele and then encourage a top Justice Department official to keep meeting with him, and then coming and briefing you about each of those meetings and conversations?’
‘Seems to me you’re trying to hide something when you do that.’
The president of Judicial Watch, Tom Fitton, said: ‘This new Bruce Ohr FBI 302s show an unprecedented and irregular effort by the FBI, DOJ, and State Department to dig up dirt on President Trump using the conflicted Bruce Ohr, his wife, and the Clinton/DNC spies at Fusion GPS.
‘The FISA courts weren’t informed of this corrupted process when they were asked to approve and reapprove extraordinary spy warrants targeting President Trump.’
The partially redacted documents, first obtained by Judicial Watch, revealed that the FBI appeared to ignore the red flags against Steele to apply for multiple Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court warrants using his dossier
Mr Steele’s so-called ‘dodgy dossier’ alleged that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to fix the 2016 election
By September 2016, Ohr was made aware of an individual with links to the dossier that was ‘desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being the US President.’
Mr Steele’s so-called ‘dodgy dossier’ alleged that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to fix the 2016 election and that he paid prostitutes to urinate on him in a Moscow hotel room.
As well as supplying the dossier to the Clinton campaign, Steele also handed it over to American and British intelligence agencies as he was worried about the national security implications.
It would eventually lead to the Mueller report, where Special Counsel Robert Mueller exonerated Trump of conspiring with the Russians to win the Presidency.
Reacting to the latest revelations, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham: ‘This is just the tip of the iceberg. I know personally there’s a lot more out there.’
The FBI documents repeated claims pushed by Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm behind the dossier that was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee (DNC), that read: ‘Ohr believes [redacted] wanted to blunt or foil the Kremlin’s plans.’
A source told Fox News that this meant Ohr, a senior DOJ official, was notified ‘that a witness/source had an extreme bias.’
Ohr also met with Steel in Washington in late September 2016, allegedly near the publication of the Yahoo news article on September 23.
Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of Fusion GPS, and Steele may have even met with Yahoo and the journalist who wrote the article directly.
The 22 pages of reports also revealed how Ohr had extensive contact with Steele over Whatsapp.
After Steele’s identity as the author of the dossier was revealed in January 2017, he spoke with Ohr over Whatsapp and they agreed to ‘keep a line of communication open’.
This contact extended through May 2017, when Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed.
Ohr became a back channel for Steele, keeping him in the loop with the FBI after he was fired.