Sir
Andrew Wood, right, says he acted as a “go-between” last year to inform Sen.
John McCain, left, about the controversial “dossier” containing allegations
about then-candidate Donald Trump.
Following the trail of the unverified Trump dossier
Former senior British diplomat, Sir Andrew Wood, says he
was instructed by Christopher Steele to reach out to Sen. McCain about the
dossier; Catherine Herridge goes in-depth for 'Special Report.'
The man who says he acted as a “go-between” last year to
inform Sen. John McCain about the controversial “dossier” containing salacious
allegations about then-candidate Donald Trump is speaking out, revealing how
the ex-British spy who researched the document helped coordinate its release to
the FBI, the media and Capitol Hill.
“My mission was essentially to be a go-between and a
messenger, to tell the senator and assistants that such a dossier existed,” Sir
Andrew Wood told Fox News in an exclusive interview with senior executive
producer Pamela K. Browne.Fox News spoke to Wood at the 2017 Halifax International
Security Forum in Nova Scotia, Canada. As Britain’s ambassador to Moscow from
1995-2000, Wood witnessed the end of Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the
rise of Vladimir Putin.
Just after the U.S. presidential election in November
2016, Arizona GOP Sen. McCain spoke at the same security conference. Wood says
he was instructed — by former British spy Christopher Steele — to reach out to
the senior Republican, whom Wood called “a good man,” about the unverified
document.
Wood insists that he’s never read the dossier that his
good friend and longtime colleague prepared. It was commissioned by opposition
research firm Fusion GPS and funded by the Democratic National Committee and
the Hillary Clinton campaign.
In August 2016, “[Steele] came to me to tell me what was
in it, and why it … was important,” Wood said. “He made it very clear … yes, it
was raw intelligence, but it needed putting into proper context before you
could judge it fully.”
August 2016 is a critical period, just after the FBI
opened the Russia meddling probe, and after then-director James Comey
recommended against prosecution for Clinton’s mishandling of classified
information.
Wood said Steele had “already been in contact with the
FBI” at the time.
“He said there was corroborating evidence in the United
States, from which I assumed he was working with an American company,” Wood
said.
British court records reviewed by Fox News as well as
U.S. congressional testimony revealed that Steele was directed and paid at
least $168,000 by Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson to push the research that
fall to five American media outlets. According to British court documents,
Steele met with The New York Times (twice), The Washington Post (twice), CNN,
The New Yorker and Yahoo News (twice).
“Each of these interviews was conducted in person and
with a member of Fusion also present,” according to the records associated with
separate civil litigation against Steele and Fusion GPS.
Wood said he’d heard of Fusion GPS, as the group Steele
was working with, but had “never heard of Mr. Simpson.”
Three weeks after Trump won the presidential election, at
the Canadian security conference, the details were finalized for the dossier
hand-off to McCain.
Along with the senator, Wood and McCain Institute for
International Leadership staffer David J. Kramer attended the Canadian
conference.
British court records state McCain ordered Kramer to get
a personal briefing from Steele in Surrey, just outside of London, and then
return to Washington, D.C., where Fusion GPS would provide McCain with hard
copies.
In January, McCain officially gave the dossier to the
FBI, which already had its own copy from Steele.
Of note, listed in the official program for the 2016
November Canadian conference as a participant was Rinat Akhmetshin — the same
Russian lobbyist who was at Trump Tower five months earlier in June for a
highly scrutinized meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and others.
It is not known whether Akhmetshin had any contact with
McCain or Kramer.
Fusion GPS and Kramer did not respond to requests for
comment from Fox News.
Asked for comment, McCain’s office referred back to a
January statement that said he could not judge the dossier’s accuracy.
Catherine
Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News
Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice
Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996
as a London-based correspondent.
Pamela
K. Browne is Senior Executive Producer at the FOX News Channel (FNC) and is
Director of Long-Form Series and Specials. Her journalism has been recognized
with several awards. Browne first joined FOX in 1997 to launch the news magazine
“Fox Files” and later, “War Stories.”
Cyd
Upson is a Senior Producer at FOX News.
