Trump dossier author Christopher Steele is seemingly deeply worried about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse investigation being carried out by the Justice Department inspector general.
Matthew Rosenberg, a correspondent for the New York Times and CNN national security analyst, said he has spoken with people in Steele’s orbit who confirmed the British ex-spy is willing to meet with “investigators close to the inspector general investigation.” But Steele is also “incredibly concerned and obsessed that this investigation is going to throw him under the bus,” Rosenberg said Tuesday on CNN.
This week a report from the Times in the United Kingdom said Steele is willing to meet with U.S. officials, but only to discuss his work for the FBI as a confidential source, and wants the United States to get permission from the U.K. government first. The report came out as President Trump was in the country for a state visit.
Quoting sources close to Steele, Rosenberg framed Steele’s thinking as, “‘Look, I was working on this dossier other people were paying for — that the Democrats were paying for. I saw things that seemed frightening to me and alarming. And I went to old contacts at the FBI to tell them. I wasn’t a paid source in this case.’ That’s his view of it.”
Steele’s dossier, which was packed with unverified claims about President Trump’s ties to Russia, formed a key part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications that were used to justify surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Steele was working for Fusion GPS, which received funding through the Perkins Coie law firm from the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Steele’s Democratic benefactors were not revealed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Rosenberg said Steele does not think he should be blamed for any actions of the FBI or DOJ and “he was simply helping them out and what they did with it, whether they misused it in a FISA or whatever they did, he had nothing to do with that.”
Rosenberg agreed with this assessment, saying Steele wasn’t part of the FISA process, but was “simply a source of information.”
Steele worked to provide information from his dossier to over a dozen journalists and media organizations. Steele also used various government contacts, such as top DOJ official Bruce Ohr, State Department official Kathleen Kavalec, and others, in his efforts to get the dossier into the hands of U.S. officials and have it taken seriously.
“[Steele] is acutely concerned that he’s going to be thrown under the bus here,” Rosenberg noted.
Earlier this year Attorney General William Barr said he expected inspector general Michael Horowitz’s investigation to be wrapped up by the end of May or June. Fox News host Sean Hannity said this week that sources were telling him Barr may already have a copy of the inspector general’s report on the FISA abuse investigation, so if Horowitz does soon speak with Steele it is unclear what that will mean for the inquiry that was thought to be winding down if not complete.
Barr also is taking a broader look into the origins of the Russia investigation and picked U.S. Attorney John Durham to lead the review.
