Investigating the investigators

Maybe not going like they were hoping.

Christopher Steele, the former British spy behind the infamous “dossier” on President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, was interviewed for 16 hours in June by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog, according to two people familiar with the matter.

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[DOJ Inspector General Michael] Horowitz has been examining the FBI’s efforts to surveil a one-time Trump campaign adviser [Carter Page] based in part on information from Steele, an ex-British MI6 agent who had worked with the bureau as a confidential source since 2010.

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Horowitz’s team has been intensely focused on gauging Steele’s credibility as a source for the bureau. But Steele was initially reluctant to speak with the American investigators because of the potential impropriety of his involvement in an internal DOJ probe as a foreign national and retired British intelligence agent.

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The extensive, two-day interview took place in London while Trump was in Britain for a state visit.

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Steele’s American lawyer was present for the conversation.

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The interview was contentious at first, the sources added, but investigators ultimately found Steele’s testimony credible and even surprising.

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[T]he extensive interview with Steele, and the investigators’ sense that he offered new and important information, may dampen expectations among the president’s allies who’ve claimed that Steele’s sensational dossier was used improperly by the bureau to “spy” on the campaign.

  Politico

Demands for an investigation into the so-called “Steele dossier,” authored by former UK MI6 spy Christopher Steele, were previously made by Republicans, and resulted in a Department of Justice Inspector General investigation that began in March 2018. Many conservatives lambasted the report for being the catalyst of the FBI investigation into Trump, although fact-checking organizations have demonstrated that wasn’t the case at all.

Still, Trump allies alleged that a specific action taken by the FBI — the monitoring of Trump campaign aide Carter Page — was unduly made, since the FISA warrant was issued in part based on selections from the Steele dossier.

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Attorney General William Barr, who now heads the Justice Department, told a congressional committee that the Horowitz probe would be completed by May or June.

One of the two sources said Horowitz’s investigators appear to have found Steele’s information sufficiently credible to have to extend the investigation. Its completion date is now unclear.

  Hill Reporter

The twelfth of never as long as Trump and Barr are in office.

Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday he believes the public will soon see that much of the Trump-Russia dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele was "made up."

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"This is a man who made up this entire document. As you're starting to see it's unraveling, his sources are not real or if they are real they're second and third hand. So a lot of this is just made up out of whole cloth," said Nunes.

  Fox News

Well, what a surprise.