Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Friday challenged FBI agents reportedly using the infamous Christopher Steele dossier as a “roadmap” to their investigation, demanding they explain the impact foreign intelligence may have had on their probe.
In a letter to the FBI, Grassley asked whether salacious dossier, which alleges Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to impact the 2016 presidential election may have been "surreptitiously funneled into U.S. intelligence streams through foreign intelligence sharing.”
"Mr. Steele’s dossier allegations might appear to be 'confirmed' by foreign intelligence, rather than just an echo of the same 'research' that Fusion bought from Steele and that the FBI reportedly also attempted to buy from Steele,” Grassley wrote.
"The committee must understand what steps the FBI has taken to ensure that any foreign information it received and used in the Russia investigation, beyond the dossier itself, was not ultimately sourced to Mr. Steele, his associates such as Fusion GPS, or his subsources," he added.
The letter comes after reports Thursday indicated special counsel Robert Mueller has interviewed Steele, the former British M16 agent who originally compiled the document. Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that they'd hit a brick wall with Steele and indicated they couldn't meet with him. Through an associate, Steele told Rachel Maddow that he informed the senators that he was more than willing to meet with them and was waiting on them to set up an official time.