Ex-spy Christopher Steele breaks his silence to complain that Robert Mueller’s report was ‘too narrow’, defends his Democrat-funded ‘dirty dossier’ and says Trump didn’t like the ‘intelligence’ because the ‘truth is inconvenient for him’
- Steele addressed students at Oxford University in England on Friday
- He wrote the ‘dirty dossier’ that was used by the FBI to get FISA warrants
- Steele complained that Mueller’s report didn’t contain what Steele told him
- Said it was ‘not great’ that Don Jr and other witnesses weren’t interviewed
- Denied that he had any political bias despite Democrats paying for his report
British ex-spy Christopher Steele has spoken out in public for the first time since the revelation of his ‘dirty dossier’ alleging Russian influence over President Donald Trump.
Steele’s dossier, which was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, became FBI evidence in the FISA warrant applications against Trump advisor Carter Page.
He has not spoken publicly since the dossier was leaked weeks before Trump’s inauguration, but surfaced on Friday to address a group of students at Oxford University in England, where a Daily Beast reporter was present.
Steele said he had been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into potential collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government for ‘two whole days’ but was disappointed with Mueller’s final report.
British ex-spy Christopher Steele has spoken out in public for the first time since the revelation of his ‘dirty dossier’ alleging Russian influence on President Donald Trump
Steele said he had been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe for ‘two whole days’ but was disappointed with Mueller’s final report
‘I was surprised that very little of what I had discussed with them appeared in the final report,’ said Steele, a former intelligence officer who ran the Russia desk at MI6.
He criticized the report for being ‘too narrow’ and failing to follow up on crucial evidence.
‘There were many things about the report that were good… but other (aspects) that were not so good,’ he said.
Steele said the fact that ‘a number of witnesses—including for instance, Donald Trump Jr.’ had avoided being interviewed ‘wasn’t great.’
Dismissing longstanding allegations of political bias, Steele described himself as simply ‘an opponent of President Putin.’
Steele said that Trump is naturally hostile toward the intelligence community.
‘Trump himself doesn’t like intelligence because its ground truth is inconvenient for him,’ he said.
Steele surfaced on Friday to address a group of students at Oxford University in England
Steele said that Trump is naturally hostile toward the intelligence community ‘because its ground truth is inconvenient for him’
Steele said he would refuse to participate in U.S. Attorney John Durham’s ‘investigate the investigators’ probe, which is looking into potential wrongdoing in the Trump-Russia probe.
He said that he and his private investigation company had ‘done our duty’ by cooperating with a separate Inspector General probe.
Durham’s prosecution team recently approached representatives of Steele, sources said.
Steele’s representatives told Durham’s team that the former officer for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, was not interested in cooperating with Durham’s investigation and would not speak to his team, sources said.
Steele was concerned that Durham’s investigation was overly politicized and he would not be treated fairly, the sources said.
A spokesman for Durham said the prosecutor had no comment. Spokespeople for the Justice Department and Orbis Business Intelligence, Steele’s London-based private investigations firm, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
U.S. Attorney John Durham (above) has been appointed to conduct a separate investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, that has since turned into a criminal matter
Reuters was unable to determine what the prosecutors specifically wanted to question Steele about, but Durham has been assigned by Barr to examine the origins of investigations into Trump and his campaign’s contacts with Russia.
Some of those targeted by Durham, including senior former aides to President Barack Obama who raised questions about Trump’s connections to Russia before the 2016 election, have expressed concern the probe could be used to retaliate against them.
The investigation into Trump and his campaign’s contacts with Russia conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller found there was not sufficient evidence to prove that Trump’s 2016 campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Trump has strongly denied any such coordination and denounced both the Mueller investigation and Steele dossier as products of political witch-hunts.
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