FBI used Russian disinformation to launch investigation into Trump, audit finds

The Steele Dossier — key evidence the FBI used to justify spying on a Trump campaign figure in 2016 — was based in part on Russian disinformation, two top senators revealed Friday, citing newly declassified footnotes from an inspector general’s report. Sens. Charles E. Grassley and Ron Johnson, both committee chairs and top investigators, said given the Steele Dossier was funded by the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign, that means they were actively responsible for spreading Russian disinformation, which plunged the country into political turmoil for much of the last three years. While the work of former British spy Christopher Steele had long been suspected of being tainted by Russian disinformation, the new revelation is the first official confirmation, and it comes from the Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s authoritative report on the FBI’s bunglings. The information was contained in several footnotes in the report, which had been redacted from the public release, but which were made public Friday. “These footnotes confirm that there was a direct Russian disinformation campaign in 2016, and there were ties between Russian intelligence and a presidential campaign — the Clinton campaign, not Trump’s,” Mr. Grassley and Mr. Johnson said. Footnote 350 says Mr. Steele’s reporting about the activities of former Trump personal lawyer Michael Cohen were “part of a Russian disinformation campaign to denigrate U.S. foreign relations.” The footnote also says information on Mr. Trump’s 2013 trip to Moscow were falsified by Russian intelligence, then injected into the American political conversation. An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment...MORE