State Department Official ‘Destroyed’ Records at Foreign Agent's Request

A former State Department official told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he destroyed records in January 2017, the month President Donald Trump took office, at the request of former British spy Christopher Steele, according to a new report.

Jonathan Winer, who served as special envoy to Libya through early 2017, was Steele’s contact at the State Department. Winer arranged a meeting for Steele in October 2016 with another State Department official at Foggy Bottom to share findings of research on Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee in the November 2016 election.

The Senate Intelligence Committee interviewed Winer twice about his contacts with Steele and his handling of the so-called Steele dossier on Trump, on July 10, 2017, and April 18, 2018.

According to the Senate committee’s report released Tuesday, Winer disclosed that he destroyed reports that Steele had sent him over the years. The report also says that Winer failed to reveal when asked in his first interview with the committee that he had arranged the meeting for Steele at the State Department months earlier.

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