Sen. Chuck Grassley asked the FBI to clarify whether the document's contents could have been "surreptitiously funneled into U.S. intelligence streams through foreign intelligence sharing." | John Shinkle/POLITICO Grassley concerned about FBI use of Trump ‘dossier’ in Russia investigation

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley on Friday asked the FBI to explain how foreign intelligence sharing has affected its use of an unverified dossier containing salacious allegations about President Donald Trump for its Russia investigation.

The Iowa Republican has raised concerns to the FBI about the so-called Steele Dossier since March, but in a Friday letter he highlighted "material inconsistencies" in the bureau's answers so far about its use of the controversial and unproven Trump-Russia dossier.


Noting that the dossier was passed on to the U.K. government according to lawyers representing author Christopher Steele, Grassley asked the FBI to clarify whether the document's contents could have been "surreptitiously funneled into U.S. intelligence streams through foreign intelligence sharing."

Steele, a former British intelligence agent, initially compiled the dossier — replete with unproven details of alleged Russian efforts to compromise Trump — for the firm Fusion GPS.

If the FBI had interpreted a foreign intelligence service's receipt of the Steele dossier as a de facto confirmation, "it would be alarming," Grassley wrote on Friday to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

"Mr. Steele’s dossier allegations might appear to be 'confirmed' by foreign intelligence, rather than just an echo of the same 'research' that Fusion bought from Steele and that the FBI reportedly also attempted to buy from Steele."

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Grassley asked the FBI to detail any foreign intelligence that may have underpinned its investigation into potential Russian collusion with Trump allies, setting an Oct. 18 deadline for receipt.

"The committee must understand what steps the FBI has taken to ensure that any foreign information it received and used in the Russia investigation, beyond the dossier itself, was not ultimately sourced to Mr. Steele, his associates such as Fusion GPS, or his subsources," Grassley wrote.

Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the Department of Justice's Trump-Russia investigation, sent his investigators to meet with Steele earlier this year, CNN reported on Thursday.