FBI Kept Using Steele Dossier for FISA Applications Despite Documenting Ex-Spy’s Bias

The FBI formally documented the anti-Trump bias of British ex-spy Christopher Steele months shortly after the November 2016 presidential election, yet continued to use his unverified dossier in multiple Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court warrant application renewals, records obtained by Fox News show.

The partially redacted documents, first obtained by Judicial Watch, also revealed that top Justice Department official Bruce Ohr maintained contact with Steele for at least six months after Steele was fired by the FBI for unauthorized media contacts in November 2016. . .

The summaries of FBI interviews with Ohr, known as 302s, showed that Ohr knew by September 2016 — a month before the initial FISA application to surveil the Trump campaign — that Steele was “desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being the U.S. President.”

Nevertheless, the FISA warrant application went through in October 2016 with multiple renewals. While the FISA records are heavily redacted, it does not appear that the FBI’s documentation about Steele’s bias was ever shared with the FISA court.

Proceedings before FISA courts are ex parte, meaning defendants are not aware of them or able to attend in any capacity. The FBI has a legal and procedural obligation to reveal exculpatory evidence to the FISA court on its own. (Read more from “FBI Kept Using Steele Dossier for FISA Applications Despite Documenting Ex-Spy’s Bias” HERE)

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