Ex-FBI officials: Obama order drove push to include Steele dossier in report on Russian interference

Former top FBI officials pointed to an order from President Barack Obama to explain an effort to include British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s salacious and unverified dossier in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The new revelations were contained in the heavily redacted 158-page bipartisan report released by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, which concurred with the January 2017 assessment by the FBI, National Security Agency, and CIA that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential contest to help then-candidate Donald Trump and to harm former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.