A new report by the Washington Post reveals a very senior FBI official shared intelligence with dossier author and former British spy, Christopher Steele.
Christopher Steele has many old contacts at the FBI from when he was a British spy. He tapped into those old contacts in mid-2016 to warn about Trump’s ‘connections to Russians’.
It turns out an FBI agent revealed the name of Trump campaign volunteer, George Papadopoulos to Christopher Steele on October 1st, 2016 during a meeting in Rome, according to this report.
Steele had never heard of Papadopoulos. Why is the FBI sharing intel with a former British spy about an ongoing investigation?
Via WaPo:
So when Steele contacted the FBI in mid-2016 with information about Trump and the Russians, he was already a valued source. On about July 4, 2016, he met with his FBI friend in London to share what he had gathered for a June 20 Fusion GPS report, the first chapter of his eventual dossier. In that first report, Steele’s sources claimed that Russia had been “cultivating” Trump for at least five years.
Steele’s information didn’t get much high-level attention at first. But bells began ringing in July, after Australian intelligence told the FBI about an unusual conversation two months earlier between Australia’s London high commissioner and George Papadopoulos, a Trump foreign policy adviser. As the New York Times reported last month, Papadopoulos had told the Australian official that Russia had damaging political information about Clinton. The Australians decided to share this intelligence with the FBI after hacked Democratic emails were published in July.
The FBI was now very interested. Based on the Australian account, knowledgeable sources say, the bureau requested another meeting with Steele to dig deeper. That encounter took place around Oct. 1 in Rome with Steele’s old FBI contact. At this meeting, the FBI official asked Steele if he had ever heard of Papadopoulos, according to an official familiar with the meeting. Steele hadn’t.
So Christopher Steele never heard of Papadopoulos and former head of the DNI James Clapper never heard of Papadopoulos but he’s somehow central to the Russia investigation. Makes sense.
Sneaky Dem Senator Dianne Feinstein released the Fusion GPS transcripts last week and conveniently redacted the names of the FBI contacts.
According to reports, the FBI used this discredited Russia dossier to obtain a FISA warrant in order to spy on Trump’s campaign.
Chairman Nunes also confirmed he saw clear evidence of FISA abuse and will be briefing Congress on the matter in the coming days.
H/T Chuck Ross of The Daily Caller
