Comey Says He Has Not Read Recent Report About Steele Dossier Source, But Will Testify About It Next Week

Former FBI Director James Comey said Friday that he has not read explosive new reports showing that the primary source for dossier author Christopher Steele was the target of an FBI counterintelligence investigation.

Comey said during an interview on CNN that he plans to read the documents and will answer questions about it when he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 30.

“I haven’t read what they put out. I’ll read it before I testify next week, and I’ll answer whatever questions that they have,” Comey said.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham released an FBI memo on Thursday that showed the bureau investigated Steele’s source, Igor Danchenko, between 2009 and 2011.

The bureau began the process of pursuing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against Danchenko in 2010 but tabled the effort after he left the country.

Graham called the revelations “stunning,” noting that the FBI relied heavily on information from Steele’s dossier to obtain warrants to surveil former Trump aide Carter Page. (RELATED: Steele Source Had Meeting In Russia At Crucial Point In Dossier Saga)

The FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane team learned the identity of Steele’s source in December 2016 and also found bureau case files showing the earlier investigation of Danchenko. Graham said that the FBI did not inform the FISA Court of the information about Danchenko.

Graham has said he wants to find out Comey and other top officials when they learned about Danchenko and the dossier, and why the information was not disclosed in FISA applications against Page.

Comey downplayed Republican theories about the dossier, saying that the Crossfire Hurricane probe “was begun based on information having nothing to do with Steele dossier.”

“Setting aside the merits of the Steele... (Read more)

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