CHR - FBI Violated Its Own Standards In Russiagate Scandal

TOP LINE

This week, the ‘Russiagate Binder' was released.

While there is no smoking gun, the records are further evidence that the FBI “Russia collusion” probe into President Trump was not fact-based but driven by personal and political bias.   

Former FBI agents dubbed the probe a ”Headquarters Special” that wrongly relied on the uncorroborated Steele Dossier information to help secure surveillance warrants for a Trump campaign aide.   

The new records show the FBI violated its own investigative standards.

DEEP DIVE: Senior Intel Official Pushed Back Against Dossier

One of the nation’s most senior intelligence officials pushed back against including the Steele Dossier in the main body of the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment into Russian election interference.  

In his 2017 FBI interview, Admiral Mike Rogers, then the Director of the National Security Agency said the Steele Dossier “was considered largely uncorroborated.”

ADM Rogers’ FBI interview adds weight to the criticism that then-FBI Director James Comey kept the origins and targets of the Crossfire Hurricane probe on extremely close hold.

During public congressional testimony in 2017, “ADM Rogers was surprised when Comey told the committee…the FBI was investigating potential links between individuals associate(d) with the Trump Campaign and the Russian interference.”  

Rogers said there was no warning. “Comey did not tell him (Rogers) in advance about the ongoing set of investigations.”

FBI Agent Strzok Had Reservations About The Dossier 

Even lead FBI agent Peter Strzok had some reservations about the Steele dossier but the uncorroborated information was still used to secure the FISA surveillance warrants.  This remains extraordinary because the bar to surveil American citizens is understandably high.

According to a September 2016 text in the Russiagate Binder, Strzok seemed to admit as much.  Referring to the reporting of former British spy Christopher Steele, codenamed CROWN, Strozk wrote, “I would definitely say at a minimum Crown’s reports should be viewed as intended to influence as well as to inform.” 

FBI interview: Christopher Steele Calls President Trump “Main Opponent”

The FBI’s 2017 interview of Christopher Steele provides more granular detail about Steele’s relationship with the bureau, his personal dislike of President Trump as well as eye-popping expense reports.

According to the interview, Steele and his business partner “apologized for going to the press in the fall of 2016.”  Steele explained their company, Orbis Business Intelligence, was “‘‘riding two horses’ - their client and the FBI - and after FBI Director James Comey’s reopening of the Hillary Clinton investigation, they had to pick ‘one horse’ and chose the business/client...”

Context:  The Steele FBI interview is further evidence of what’s called “circular reporting.”  The 2016 media reports about the dossier were cited in the FBI’s surveillance applications for Trump campaign aide Carter Page.  

In this case, research commissioned by the Clinton campaign was leaked to reporters.  The FBI then cited those media reports to justify the Page surveillance warrant.

Further, Steele and his business partner “described President Trump as their…

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