FBI disregarded dossier author's admission 'raw' intelligence amounted to gossip

Dossier creator Christopher Steele is scheduled to stand trial in mid-May in a defamation case whose 2017 court records were ignored by FBI agents as they wrote the last of four dossier-based wiretap warrants on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page in June of that year.

Mr. Steele filed his first sworn declaration in a London court on April 3, 2017, admitting that one of his 17 memos — though not on Mr. Page — was “unsolicited” and “raw” intelligence.

The Washington Times first disclosed the document on April 25, 2017. Republicans later told the Justice Department the filing should have set off alarm bells inside the FBI about Mr. Steele’s credibility, given his admission he had accepted gossip.

None of the four FBI wiretap affidavits on Mr. Page would have been sought without the Democrat Party-funded dossier, according to Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz.

More