Report: Devin Nunes flew to London to get info on ex-spy who wrote Donald Trump dossier

Erin Kelly | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes flew to London earlier this month to ask British intelligence agents for information on the ex-spy who compiled the infamous dossier alleging ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, according to a report Tuesday in The Atlantic.

Nunes' office had no immediate response to the report.

Nunes, R-Calif., hoped to meet with top officials of the British spy ages MI5 and MI6 and the Government Communications Headquarters, but was rebuffed by those agencies because they feared the congressman was "trying to stir up a controversy," according to The Atlantic.

However, Nunes did meet with Britain's deputy national security adviser, Madeleine Alessandri, according to The Atlantic.

The magazine said Nunes was seeking information on former British spy Christopher Steele, who compiled a dossier with salacious, still unsubstantiated allegations that Donald Trump interacted with Russian prostitutes before he was president.

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The dossier was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign committee as part of its opposition research on Trump, sparking allegations by Trump and his allies that the Russia investigation is a "hoax" started by Democrats.

Nunes, a strong Trump supporter who served on the presidential transition team, heavily influenced his committee's controversial investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The panel concluded last spring – over the strong objections of its Democratic members – that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. However, the Senate Intelligence Committee and special counsel Robert Mueller are continuing to investigate possible collusion.

President Donald Trump: 'Find some collusion' Speaking at a rally in West Virginia hours after back-to-back legal blows in cases stemming from Robert Mueller's investigation, President Donald Trump insisted his campaign did not collude with Russia.

Nunes and other Trump supporters have argued that the dossier was wrongly used by the FBI and the Department of Justice to obtain warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court to spy on Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign.

Nunes made those claims in a memo released last February that was denounced by Democrats as a partisan effort to help Trump. Democrats released a rebuttal memo.

Democrats said the assertion that the Russia investigation was launched because of the dossier are false. Instead, they say, the investigation began when George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, bragged to an Australian diplomat that the campaign was getting dirt on Clinton from the Russians.

The Australian diplomat contacted the FBI about the possible violation of U.S. campaign finance laws, which bar American candidates from seeking anything of value from foreign nationals.

Nunes' Democratic opponent, Andrew Janz, issued a statement Tuesday denouncing the congressman's reported trip and questioning whether it was paid for by taxpayers.

"I’m so disappointed but also not surprised in our Congressman," Janz said. "He did not have time to hold a town hall, debate me, check in or issue a statement on the thousands of California firefighters risking their lives in August, but he did have time to sneak around London and be denied meetings by British Intelligence."

Nunes sent two committee staffers to London last year in an unsuccessful quest to talk to Steele.