FBI Agents From Mueller’s Team Interviewed Anti-Trump Dossier Author: Filing

Former UK intelligence officer Christopher Steele in London, UK, on July 24, 2020, refused an offer of $1 million from the FBI to name the sources who proved the debunked allegations in the infamous 2016 “Steele Dossier.” Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images

FBI agents working on then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s team interviewed Christopher Steele, the author of the anti-Donald Trump dossier, according to a filing made public on Sept. 13.

Agents interviewed Steele, an ex-British spy whose work was funded by Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, on Sept. 18 and Sept. 19, 2017, according to the filing, which was composed by special counsel John Durham’s team and filed with the U.S. court in Alexandria, Virginia.

Steele told the agents that Igor Danchenko, a Russian national, collected election-related material in the United States for Orbis Business Intelligence, Steele’s company.

Steele also said that Danchenko informed him that he met in person with Sergei Millian, a businessman and Trump supporter, at least twice, including once in New York.

Danchenko later told the FBI, which paid him as an informant, that he actually never met with Millian. In November 2017, Danchenko told the FBI that “Steele incorrectly believed the defendant had met in-person with Millian, and that he (the defendant) did not correct Steele in that misimpression,” according to the new filing.

Steele did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He has not been charged by U.S. authorities.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 24, 2019. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

The FBI has declined to comment on the filing, made as prosecutors prepare for Danchenko’s October trial on five counts of lying to the government. The bureau referred questions to the Department of Justice, which hasn’t responded.

Mueller, whose team published a report concluding there was not cooperation or coordination between Trump and his campaign and Russian actors, declined during a congressional hearing in 2019 to answer when asked if his team interviewed Steele.

“I am unable to address questions about the opening of the FBI’s Russia investigation, which occurred months before my appointment, or matters related to the so-called Steele and dossier. These matters are the subject of ongoing review by the Department. Any questions on these topics should therefore be directed to the FBI or the Justice Department,” Mueller said.

Mueller did say that members of his team traveled overseas as part of their work but declined to say to which country or countries they went.

He also declined to say whether he had read the dossier, and said that examining the dossier’s veracity was “outside my purview.” Steele’s report was described as “unverified allegations” about Trump in Mueller’s report.