Barr Allows for Release of Additional Details About Ex-Spy Behind Steele Dossier.
Source: nyt
The British former spy was told on the eve of its release that a highly anticipated inspector generals report would contain further information about him than he had expected.
Attorney General William P. Barr recently approved making public new details about a former F.B.I. informant at the heart of conservatives allegations about the Russia investigation, deciding to release information that had been blacked out in a highly anticipated inspector generals report due out on Monday.
A representative from the office of the Justice Department inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, told the former F.B.I. informant, Christopher Steele, on Sunday that the Justice Department had decided to allow for the release of the information, two people briefed on the situation said late on Sunday.
Mr. Steele was given no details about the information itself, nor was he told how it would affect the reports portrayal of him, the people said. Mr. Horowitz is expected to be critical of Mr. Steele, a British former spy who compiled a dossier of salacious, unverified information about President Trump. F.B.I. officials relied to some degree on the dossier to seek a court order for a wiretap of a former Trump campaign adviser, and the presidents allies have seized on the issue to make broad claims about the sprawling Russia investigation.
The notice to Mr. Steele on the eve of the reports release was highly unusual. Like the other witnesses interviewed for the inspector generals report, Mr. Steele had earlier reviewed the findings that are pertinent to him, and he was given a chance to comment on them. In this case, Mr. Horowitzs office did not detail for him the additional information and gave him no opportunity to respond for the report to be released on Monday.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/us/politics/ig-report-steele-dossier.html?
KT2000
(20,567 posts)for tRump. Destroy anyone who gets in his way. Barr/tRump see only power and money. Now Steele will have to comment publicly and this has already likely ruined his company. As trump said - winning is not enough, you have to destroy.
SterlingPound
(428 posts)OnDoutside
(19,945 posts)details the hounding of Steele and his family, by the Republicans such as Grassley and Nunes. Utter scum.
KT2000
(20,567 posts)I believe he thought he was doing the right thing. Now we find out there were Ivanka ties!
TrollBuster9090
(5,953 posts)...fought all the way to The Supreme Court to hide details in the Mueller Report. But now he probably wants to release Steele's home address, so that Fox News can ambush him, and Putin can put novichok on his front door knob. Oh, and also release the fact that he was having an affair with Nelly Ohr?
As an ally, the British should at least get a veto on what information is going to be released.
The very fact that they're not telling Steele what information is going to be released is a giant red flag that they're going to do a political hit on him.
Pachamama
(16,884 posts)okaawhatever
(9,457 posts)of Putin/Russia have a bad habit of dying from Polonium poisoning.
PSPS
(13,577 posts)It's all about TV. Get the president of Ukraine to say something "on TV." Offer ghoulianni to "report to congress" so it can be seen "on TV."
DallasNE
(7,402 posts)Right on schedule too.
Data needs context and to give no opportunity to respond tells you all you need to know.
Also, the timeline I have read said the initial court order for a wiretap took place before the Steele dossier came to light. Now it may have been used to some degree on applications to extend the wiretap but that makes the statement somewhat misleading or worse.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,262 posts)It gives them the appearance of a reason to have done this farce of an investigation, now that the FBI has been shown to have acted properly. And it sends a message to anyone else who opposes them - "well fight you all the way, and fuck up your life".
PuffedMica
(1,061 posts)Barr is using his last shot with Horowitz's IG report to deflect media attention away from Trump. Trump is about to have major Saudi Arabia problems. His administration has allowed unrestricted arms sales to the Kingdom coupled with unrestricted training of their military. The three people shot in Pensacola have opened the door showing the damage Trump has caused by showing foreign governments all the secrets of our weapons systems. Everything we sold the Saudis is now compromised.
duforsure
(11,884 posts)And justice, he'll eventually realize, will prevail , and hold them all accountable, then they'll claim they're the victims. Barr will end up going to prison for his actions.
ancianita
(35,926 posts)for 22 years. Now Steele's been officially labeled "an enemy of mother Russia."
When Republican senators read up on Steele's background, this won't really matter in the bigger picture of this impeachment process.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)NYT is lying. That rightwing claim has been debunked.
csziggy
(34,131 posts)By Scott Shane, Mark Mazzetti and Adam Goldman
April 19, 2017
WASHINGTON Ever since F.B.I. investigators discovered in 2013 that a Russian spy was trying to recruit an American businessman named Carter Page, the bureau maintained an occasional interest in Mr. Page. So when he became a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign last year and gave a Russia-friendly speech at a prestigious Moscow institute, it soon caught the bureaus attention.
That trip last July was a catalyst for the F.B.I. investigation into connections between Russia and President Trumps campaign, according to current and former law enforcement and intelligence officials.
It is unclear exactly what about Mr. Pages visit drew the F.B.I.s interest: meetings he had during his three days in Moscow, intercepted communications of Russian officials speaking about him, or something else.
After Mr. Page, 45 a Navy veteran and businessman who had lived in Moscow for three years stepped down from the Trump campaign in September, the F.B.I. obtained a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court allowing the authorities to monitor his communications on the suspicion that he was a Russian agent.
More: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/us/politics/carter-page-russia-trump.html
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)NYT disproves their own contribution to the false narrative.
BlueIdaho
(13,582 posts)So maybe a carefully redacted piece of propaganda will slow the tide of evidence.