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| CHARGE: DOJ never paid Steele for the “dossier.” (p. 6) |
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| RESPONSE: As clearly stated in the GOP memo, FBI authorized payment to Steele for the dossier information—before he was terminated as an FBI source for making unauthorized disclosures to the media. This financial motivation was not disclosed to the Court. |
| CHARGE: The GOP memo’s reference to Bruce Ohr is misleading. (p. 7) |
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| RESPONSE: Steele’s desperation to keep Donald Trump from becoming President—described in the GOP memo and confirmed by the Graham-Grassley referral—was known to senior DOJ official Bruce Ohr before the initial FISA application, and known to FBI before any of the renewals. (The summary of Ohr’s first interview with FBI about Steele is dated November 22, 2016.)
Remarkably, neither Steele’s bias, nor Ohr’s relationship with Steele or the FBI, nor the fact that Ohr’s wife worked for Fusion GPS on its DNC- and Clinton campaign-funded Trump research, was disclosed to the Court in any of the FISA applications. |
| CHARGE: Peter Strzok and Lisa Page’s text messages are irrelevant to the FISA application (p. 7). |
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| RESPONSE: Strzok opened the counterintelligence investigation of which the Carter Page FISA application was a part. Additionally, both Strzok and Lisa Page were members of the team conducting the investigation, which page 3 of the Democrat memo itself describes as “so closely held.” Especially given the small size of the team, the apparent bias of the investigators displayed in Strzok-Page text messages is highly relevant to an analysis of the investigation, including the controversial decision to seek a FISA warrant on Carter Page. |
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