“I would welcome him coming into the committee,” Rep. Adam Schiff said in an interview. | Getty Schiff to seek testimony from Trump 'dossier' author

The top Democrat on the House panel investigating President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia says he plans to seek testimony from the former British spy who wrote the unsubstantiated “dossier” containing salacious allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California said Wednesday he hoped to interview the former spy, Christopher Steele, as part of the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.


“I would welcome him coming into the committee,” Schiff said in an interview. “If there's an issue about whether he's willing to come here, I'm more than willing to go there. But I certainly would like the opportunity to interview him as part of our investigation.”

He declined to comment on whether the committee had already reached out to Steele.

In an earlier appearance on MSNBC, Schiff said: “We certainly want to get to the bottom of the details of that dossier and report what has been substantiated, what hasn't, and find out just how he based those conclusions and to whatever degree he is willing to share with us any sources of his information.”

Steele now works for a private intelligence firm and reportedly went into hiding in January after BuzzFeed News published his 35-page dossier. He returned to work on Tuesday, making a statement to the media that he is “now going to be focusing my efforts on supporting the broader interests of our company here,” according to CBS News.

Steele’s dossier alleges that Russia has compromising information on Trump and that officials in Moscow communicated with Trump campaign aides ahead of November’s election.

