Even though the FBI offered $1 million if he would be able to prove any of the claims made in his dossier, former British spy Christopher Steele was unable to do so, an intelligence official testified on Tuesday. Nevertheless, the FBI used the dossier to secure wiretaps to spy on Donald Trump-related individuals and to spread a narrative of treasonous collusion with Russia by the former president.
FBI supervisory analyst Brian Auten made the confession during the trial of Igor Danchenko, Steele’s unnamed “Primary Sub-Source” who funneled anti-Trump information manufactured by a Hillary Clinton booster to Steele and is now facing indictment on five counts of lying to the FBI.
Auten said the FBI never paid Steele — who was employed by Fusion GPS, which Clinton’s campaign lawyers commissioned to dig up dirt connecting Trump to Russia — because the British spy could not “prove the allegations” outlined in
