Newly released notes revealed the apparent political purposes of the infamous Steele dossier which was used by the FBI to secure a warrant to spy on former Trump campaign associate Carter Page.
He made the requests after the notes of an Oct. 11, 2016, meeting between Steele and then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Kathleen Kavalec emerged.
According to the notes, Steele reportedly told Kavalec that an unidentified organization was “keen to see this information (the dossier) come to light prior to November 8,” the date of the 2016 presidential election. Steele at the time was working for Fusion GPS—an opposition research firm paid by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign—during that time period.
“It was unclear until recently, however, how significant her communications with Steele may have been,” Graham wrote in the letter addressed to Pompeo.
The document was able to be released due to the Freedom of Information Act.
In the letter, Graham requested the State Department provide all documents and communications on or after May 1, 2016, between State Department and Department of Justice (DOJ) employees or officials relating to Steele, the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump, or anyone associated with the Trump campaign.
He also required the State Department to make Kavalec available for a transcribed interview with the Judiciary Committee.
“I request that you include, if you have not already, consideration of this new information regarding State Department involvement with the Carter Page FISA warrant, the Steele dossier, and direct communications between State Department officials and Steele,” he wrote in the letter.
FBI ‘Aware the Dossier Was a Lie’ Before Spying on Trump Campaign: Mark Meadows
Two days after the Oct. 11, 2016, meeting, Kavalec forwarded her typed summary to officials showing her concern about Steele’s credibility.Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) affirmed to the Hill that Kavalec’s memo was forwarded to the FBI in an Oct. 13, 2016, email, eight days before the FBI used Steele and his dossier as key pieces of evidence to justify a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on Trump Campaign adviser Carter Page.
Meadows also said that the FBI knew the dossier was not credible before the FISA warrant application.
“This once again shows officials at the FBI and DOJ were well aware the dossier was a lie—from very early on in the process all the way to when they made the conscious decision to include it in a FISA application,” he told the Hill. “The fact that Christopher Steele and his partisan research document were treated in any way seriously by our Intelligence Community leaders amounts to malpractice.”
President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, expressed his concern that Former FBI Director James Comey “deceived the FISA court.”
“The evidence is mounting that Comey deceived the FISA court concerning the Steele dossier. State did a quick verification and threw Steele out. Comey did no verification for 5 months and conducted an illicit SPYING OPERATION. Let’s see how long Dem media protects Comey,” he tweeted.
