By Jake Gibson , Brooke Singman , David Spunt
Published October 11, 2022
The FBI offered ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele $1
million to corroborate salacious allegations made in his dossier
against former President Donald Trump and members of his 2016 campaign,
but he was unable to do so, an FBI official testified Tuesday.
FBI supervisory counterintelligence analyst Brian Auten was the first
witness in the trial of Igor Danchenko, the Russian national who served
as the primary sub-source for Steele's anti-Trump dossier and has been
charged with five counts of making false statements to the bureau.
Auten testified that he and a group of FBI agents went overseas in
early October 2021 to speak with Steele about the dossier. During
questioning by Special Counsel John Durham on Tuesday, Auten said that
during those meetings the FBI offered Steele $1 million if he could
corroborate allegations in the dossier. Auten testified that Steele
could not do so.
Auten also said that the FBI had no corroboration of allegations in the
dossier but nevertheless took that information and inserted it into the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to surveil former
Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
"On October 21, 2016 [the date of the Carter Page FISA application],
did you have any information to corroborate that information?" Durham
asked.
"No," Auten said,...
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/durham-probe-fbi-offered-christopher-steele-1-million-corroborate-trump-allegations-dossier
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