By Lauretta
Brown|Towhnall
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) released a redacted version of their referral
for a criminal probe of controversial, anti-Trump dossier author Christopher
Steele Monday after receiving approval from the FBI.
Their referral document reveals
that not only was Steele’s research funded by the Democratic National Committee
and the Clinton campaign, but Steele also prepared a second, unpublished
research document based on material given to him by a source who received it
from "a friend of the Clintons."
The heavily redacted referral notes that Steele said he
received information that came from "a foreign sub-source who 'is in touch
with (redacted), a contact of (redacted), a friend of the Clintons, who passed
it to (redacted).”
"It is troubling enough that the Clinton campaign
funded Mr. Steele's work, but that these Clinton associates were
contemporaneously feeding Mr. Steele allegations raises additional concerns
about his credibility," Grassley and Graham wrote in their referral to
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
A House Intelligence Committee memo released Friday
alleges that Steele’s unverified dossier on Trump's alleged ties with Russia
was used by the FBI and DOJ to obtain a FISA warrant for Trump associate,
Carter Page.
The senators are now asking for a declassification review of their referral
as they say much of the redacted information was already declassified by
President Trump when the House Intelligence Committee memo was released Friday.
Sen. Grassley expressed frustration Monday with the
excessive redactions.
“Seeking transparency and cooperation should not be this
challenging," he said in a statement. "The government should not be
blotting out information that it admits isn’t secret, and it should not take
dramatic steps by Congress and the White House to get answers that the American
people are demanding. There are still many questions that can only be answered
by complete transparency. That means declassifying as much of the
underlying documents as possible.”
__________________
IN OTHER NEWS
The Dow Goes Up And The Dow Goes Down
