The former British intelligence agent, Christopher Steele, who compiled the hoax dossier alleging ties between President Donald Trump and Russia.

according to Reuters: Steele refuses to cooperate with the Department of Justice’s investigation into the origins of the Obama administration’s spying on then-candidate Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The ex-spy has chosen not to answer questions from Connecticut’s U.S. Attorney John Durham, who was recently appointed by Attorney General William Barr to examine the probe’s origins, A Reuters source close to Steele’s private investigation outfit, Orbis Business Intelligence, said.

Reports of Steele’s unwillingness to cooperate with the Durham comes days after President Trump gave Barr authority to declassify intelligence materials related to the probe and ordered several law enforcement agencies, including the CIA and FBI to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s review.

The opposition research firm Fusion GPS tasked by attorneys for the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign hired Steele in 2016 to dig up dirt on President Trump. Steele’s dossier was partly used by the FBI to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to surveil members of the Trump campaign, namely, onetime Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

FBI officials did not disclose explicitly to the FISA court that the dossier was paid for by the DNC or the Clinton campaign. However, the bureau did indicate that the document was produced as opposition research.

According to Reuters: While Steele has ruled out cooperating with Durham’s review, the source told Reuters that the former spook may still assist the Justice Department in another investigation into the FBI’s handling of two of its most high-profile probes in recent years. “The source close to Steele’s company said Steele would not cooperate with Durham’s probe but might cooperate with a parallel inquiry by the Justice Department’s Inspector General into how U.S. law enforcement agencies handled pre-election investigations into both Trump and Clinton.”

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