Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 17K views

    2017-03-06 CEG To FBI (Arrangement To Pay Steele)

    Uploaded by

    Zerohedge
    The letter from Senator Grassley to FBI Director Comey requests information about the FBI's reported agreement to pay former British spy Christopher Steele to investigate ties between Trump and Russia. Grassley asks Comey to provide records of the agreement with Steele, meetings with Steele, and policies on funding political opposition research. He also asks whether other government officials were involved, and for clarification on the FBI's use of Steele's memos. Grassley requests a briefing by March 20th to address these issues.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    2017-03-06 CEG To FBI (Arrangement To Pay Steele)

    Uploaded by

    Zerohedge
    17K views3 pages
    The letter from Senator Grassley to FBI Director Comey requests information about the FBI's reported agreement to pay former British spy Christopher Steele to investigate ties between Trump and Russia. Grassley asks Comey to provide records of the agreement with Steele, meetings with Steele, and policies on funding political opposition research. He also asks whether other government officials were involved, and for clarification on the FBI's use of Steele's memos. Grassley requests a briefing by March 20th to address these issues.

    Original Description:

    2017-03-06 CEG to FBI (Arrangement to Pay Steele)

    Original Title

    2017-03-06 CEG to FBI (Arrangement to Pay Steele)

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The letter from Senator Grassley to FBI Director Comey requests information about the FBI's reported agreement to pay former British spy Christopher Steele to investigate ties between Trump and Russia. Grassley asks Comey to provide records of the agreement with Steele, meetings with Steele, and policies on funding political opposition research. He also asks whether other government officials were involved, and for clarification on the FBI's use of Steele's memos. Grassley requests a briefing by March 20th to address these issues.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    17K views3 pages

    2017-03-06 CEG To FBI (Arrangement To Pay Steele)

    Uploaded by

    Zerohedge
    The letter from Senator Grassley to FBI Director Comey requests information about the FBI's reported agreement to pay former British spy Christopher Steele to investigate ties between Trump and Russia. Grassley asks Comey to provide records of the agreement with Steele, meetings with Steele, and policies on funding political opposition research. He also asks whether other government officials were involved, and for clarification on the FBI's use of Steele's memos. Grassley requests a briefing by March 20th to address these issues.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    March 6, 2017

    VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION

    The Honorable James B. Comey, Jr.


    Director
    Federal Bureau of Investigation
    935 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
    Washington, DC 20535

    Dear Director Comey:

    On February 28, 2017, the Washington Post reported that the FBI reached an agreement a few
    weeks before the Presidential election to pay the author of the unsubstantiated dossier alleging a
    conspiracy between President Trump and the Russians, Christopher Steele, to continue investigating
    Mr. Trump.1 The article claimed that the FBI was aware Mr. Steele was creating these memos as part
    of work for an opposition research firm connected to Hillary Clinton. The idea that the FBI and
    associates of the Clinton campaign would pay Mr. Steele to investigate the Republican nominee for
    President in the run-up to the election raises further questions about the FBIs independence from
    politics, as well as the Obama administrations use of law enforcement and intelligence agencies for
    political ends. It is additionally troubling that the FBI reportedly agreed to such an arrangement given
    that, in January of 2017, then-Director Clapper issued a statement stating that the IC has not made any
    judgment that the information in this document is reliable, and we did not rely upon it in any way for
    our conclusions. According to the Washington Post, the FBIs arrangement with Mr. Steele fell
    through when the media published his dossier and revealed his identity.

    The Committee requires additional information to evaluate this situation. Please provide the
    following information and respond to these questions by March 20, 2017. Please also schedule a
    briefing by that date by FBI personnel with knowledge of these issues.

    1. All FBI records relating to the agreement with Mr. Steele regarding his investigation of
    President Trump and his associates, including the agreement itself, all drafts, all internal FBI

    1
    Tom Hamburger and Rosalind Helderman, FBI Once Planned to Pay Former British Spy Who Authored Controversial
    Trump Dossier, THE WASHINGTON POST (Feb. 28, 2017).
    Director Comey
    March 6, 2017
    Page 2 of 3
    communications about the agreement, all FBI communications with Mr. Steele about the
    agreement, all FBI requests for authorization for the agreement, and all records documenting
    the approval of the agreement.

    2. All records, including 302s, of any FBI meetings or interviews with Mr. Steele.

    3. All FBI policies, procedures, and guidelines applicable when the FBI seeks to fund an
    investigator associated with a political opposition research firm connected to a political
    candidate, or with any outside entity.

    4. All FBI records relating to agreements and payments made to Mr. Steele in connection with
    any other investigations, including the reported agreements relating to his investigation of
    FIFA.

    5. Were any other government officials outside of the FBI involved in discussing or authorizing
    the agreement with Mr. Steele, including anyone from the Department of Justice or the Obama
    White House? If so, please explain who was involved and provide all related records.

    6. How did the FBI first obtain Mr. Steeles Trump investigation memos? Has the FBI obtained
    additional memos from this same source that were not published by Buzzfeed? If so, please
    provide copies.

    7. Has the FBI created, or contributed to the creation of, any documents based on or otherwise
    referencing these memos or the information in the memos? If so, please provide copies of all
    such documents and, where necessary, clarify which portions are based on or related to the
    memos.

    8. Has the FBI verified or corroborated any of the allegations made in the memos? Were any
    allegations or other information from the memo included in any documents created by the FBI,
    or which the FBI helped to create, without having been independently verified or corroborated
    by the FBI beforehand? If so, why?

    9. Has the FBI relied on or otherwise referenced the memos or any information in the memos in
    seeking a FISA warrant, other search warrant, or any other judicial process? Did the FBI rely
    on or otherwise reference the memos in relation to any National Security Letters? If so, please
    include copies of all relevant applications and other documents.

    10. Who decided to include the memos in the briefings received by Presidents Obama and Trump?
    What was the basis for that decision?

    11. Did the agreement with Mr. Steele ever enter into force? If so, for how long? If it did not, why
    not?

    12. You have previously stated that you will not comment on pending investigations, including
    confirming or denying whether they exist. You have also acknowledged that statements about
    closed investigations are a separate matter, sometimes warranting disclosures or public
    Director Comey
    March 6, 2017
    Page 3 of 3
    comment. Given the inflammatory nature of the allegations in Mr. Steeles dossier, if the FBI
    is undertaking or has undertaken any investigation of the claims, will you please inform the
    Committee at the conclusion of any such investigations as to what information the
    investigations discovered and what conclusions the FBI reached? Simply put, when allegations
    like these are put into the public domain prior to any FBI assessment of their reliability, then if
    subsequent FBI investigation of the allegations finds them false, unsupported, or unreliable, the
    FBI should make those rebuttals public.

    I anticipate that your responses to these questions may contain both classified and unclassified
    information. Please send all unclassified material directly to the Committee. In keeping with the
    requirements of Executive Order 13526, if any of the responsive documents do contain classified
    information, please segregate all unclassified material within the classified documents, provide all
    unclassified information directly to the Committee, and provide a classified addendum to the Office of
    Senate Security. Although the Committee complies with all laws and regulations governing the
    handling of classified information, it is not bound, absent its prior agreement, by any handling
    restrictions or instructions on unclassified information unilaterally asserted by the Executive Branch.

    Thank you for your prompt attention to this important matter. If you have any questions,
    please contact Patrick Davis of my Committee staff at (202) 224-5225.

    Sincerely,

    Charles E. Grassley
    Chairman
    Committee on the Judiciary

    cc: The Honorable Diane Feinstein


    Ranking Member
    Senate Committee on the Judiciary

    You might also like