Declassified Notes Have GOP Investigators Asking About Comey, FBI; Steele Dossier Contained Falsehoods Traced to Russian Disnformation Campaign

By Washington Examiner. . .That’s what Republican investigators are asking after the declassification of footnotes in a Justice Department inspector general report, showing the FBI received classified reports in 2017 which identified that parts of British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s anti-Trump dossier were likely influenced by Russian disinformation.

DOJ watchdog Michael Horowitz determined last year the FBI properly opened its counterintelligence investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, into potential ties between the Kremlin and Trump campaign in the summer of 2016, but GOP concerns are more focused on the dossier being used to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against Trump campaign associate Carter Page and why leaders such as Comey insisted Steele’s research be included in the 2017 intelligence community assessment on Russian election interference.

One burning question, according to Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, is why Comey refused to allow his security clearance to be reinstated, allowing him to avoid questions about classified information that Horowitz wanted to raise for his audit of the Russia investigation.

“Why did former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI general counsel James Baker refuse to have their security clearances reinstated before they were interviewed by the inspector general? Was it so they wouldn’t have to explain this information?” Johnson, the Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman, wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published on Friday. (Read more from “Declassified Notes Have GOP Investigators Asking About Comey FBI” HERE)

__________________________________________________________

Steele Dossier Contained Falsehoods Traced to Russian Disnformation Campaign

By New York Post. The FBI came to believe that the Steele Dossier contained at least two false statements that can be traced to an elaborate Russian disinformation campaign, newly unredacted Justice Department report footnotes revealed Friday — but the agency continued to rely on the controversial document as it investigated the 2016 Trump campaign’s relationship with Russia.

The declassified footnotes are from the Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s previously released report on FBI misconduct.

The revelation — that the FBI believed dossier author and former British spy Christopher Steele relied in part on manipulated falsehoods — was met with ire by two senators who had pushed for declassification.

“It’s ironic that the Russian collusion narrative was fatally flawed because of Russian disinformation,” said Sens. Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in a statement to Fox News.

“These footnotes confirm that there was a direct Russian disinformation campaign in 2016, and there were ties between Russian intelligence and a presidential campaign — the Clinton campaign, not [President] Trump’s.” (Read more from “Steele Dossier Contained Falsehoods Traced to Russian Disnformation Campaign” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE