Fox News contributor Sara Carter revealed that the House Intelligence Committee is now
investigating former Secretary of State John Kerry's "possible role," in the Steele
dossier that was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton Campaign.
The committee began looking into Kerry's connections after his former counsel and State
Department colleague Jonathan Winer published an op-ed in the Washington Post.
Sara Carter reported:
The House Select Committee on Intelligence is now investigating former Secretary of State
John F. Kerry's possible role into the unverified dossier paid for by the Democratic National
Committee and Hillary Clinton Campaign, this reporter has learned.
The dossier, assembled by a former British spy, laid the foundation for the FBI's investigation
into alleged collusion between President Trump and Russia and was the essential piece of
evidence used by the FBI to get a warrant to spy on a former volunteer for the Trump
campaign.
For more than a month, the committee has been in its second phase of investigations focused
on former Obama State Department officials and their role in either transmitting information
or using information provided by former British spy and investigator Christopher Steele.
Steele was hired by embattled research firm Fusion GPS, also under several congressional
and Senate investigations.
[…] Jonathan Winer, a long-time colleague of Kerry
and who served as the former envoy for Libya during his tenure at the Department, wrote
an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Feb. 8, defending his relationship with Steele
and his role in the infamous dossier.
The Gateway Pundit reported:
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) recently revealed to Fox News host Laura Ingraham that Kerry
had been briefed on a 'second dossier'.
"There were comments over the weekend from people from within the State Department that
said John Kerry had been briefed on the dossier–the new dossier whatever this new dossier is and
that they also provided it to the FBI," Nunes told Ingraham.
Byron York of the Washington Examiner previously reported that the Obama State Department was
being probed as to whether or not they had a hand in the dossier.
York notes Steele was viewed inside the Obama State Department as a valuable source for
intelligence on all things Russia.
Obama State officials made a habit of disseminating reports the former British spy authored for
private clients around the Department:
A book published in November by a correspondent at the Guardian, "Collusion: Secret meetings,
dirty money, and how Russia helped Donald Trump win," noted that Steele's 2010 work
on the World Cup soccer corruption investigation won him the trust not only of the FBI, but
the State Department as well.
From author Luke Harding: The [soccer] episode burnished Steele's
reputation inside the U.S. intelligence community and the FBI.
Here was a pro, a well-connected Brit, who understood Russian espionage and its subterranean
tricks.
Steele was regarded as credible.
Between 2014 and 2016, Steele authored more than a hundred reports on Russia and Ukraine.
These were written for a private client but shared widely within the State Department
and sent up to Secretary of State John Kerry and to Assistant Secretary of State Victoria
Nuland, who was in charge of the U.S. response to the Ukraine crisis.
Many of Steele's secret sources were the same sources who would supply information
on Trump.
One former State Department envoy during the Obama administration said he read dozens of
Steele's reports on Russia.
The envoy said that on Russia, Steele was "as good as the CIA or anyone."
Steele's professional reputation inside U.S. agencies would prove important the next
time he discovered alarming material, and lit the fuse again.
Hillary Clinton, who admitted her 2016 presidential campaign helped fund the dossier, was Obama's
Secretary of State between January 21, 2009 – February 1, 2013.

No comments:
Post a Comment