Real Clear Investigations’ (RCI) Eric Felten discovered a footnote buried in the DOJ Inspector General’s December report on FISA abuses. It revealed that an FBI team in Rome revealed some of the “most closely held secrets” to the former British spy and dossier author Christopher Steele.

This took place at a meeting on October 3, 2016, one month before the election. Steele was even paid $15,000 to keep him cooperating.

THE STORY

According to Felton’s very important story, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz explains that a team of FBI agents in early October 2016 shared the extensive classified materials with Steele. That was only weeks before the bureau cut ties with him for leaking his research to the media.

The secrets that were shared included foreign intelligence so sensitive that the IG’s report refers to it to this day as coming from a “Friendly Foreign Government.”

The FBI knew Stelle was providing information to Fusion GPS, and they knew “Democratic party associates” were funding his Fusion work. Most importantly, they knew the “ultimate client” was the Clinton campaign, and that Hillary Clinton knew about his work.

This Appears to Be Criminal

According to the Inspector General and experts in national security law, these were violations of law. It’s a crime to share classified material with those not authorized to receive it, but that is what happened.

While few agents knew about Crossfire Hurricane, Steele knew. Agents told him all about it.

In October 2016, the FBI was focused on George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn, and according to the report, all four cases were officially labeled “Sensitive Investigative Matters” (SIM).

Yet they shared it with rabid partisan, Christopher Steele, a foreigner.

The material was only supposed to be shared with investigators on the case.

Felten spoke to Sean Bigley, an attorney who specializes in national security law, who told him, “Sharing classified information with anyone not authorized to receive it is a crime. But sharing classified information with a non-U.S. citizen not authorized to receive it is also the very definition of harm to national security.”

“The idea that the FBI is gratuitously sharing classified information with a foreign informant is rather extraordinary. If one of my clients did this, they would be stripped of their security clearance, out of a job, and probably facing indictment,” Bigley said.

Steele Became the Liaison Between the FBI & the Clinton Campaign

The IG report says that both former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI General Counsel James Baker “chose not to request that their security clearances be reinstated for their OIG interviews. That limited the scope of their interviews. Sounds deliberate!

Investigative journalist Lee Smith appeared on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” on Friday night to discuss Felten’s report. Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) was hosting.

Smith emphasizes the importance of Felten’s piece.

Smith said that by providing this information to Steele, who then gave it to Glenn Simpson, “a Clinton operative, in effect, Christopher Steele is the liaison now between the FBI and the Clinton campaign.”

They discussed the money the FBI was paying out, $15,000 to Steele — taxpayer money — and funds to others as well. They are paying money to this operative for opposition research. Chaffetz says “Glenn Simpson’s involved. He’s part of Team Clinton and what the DNC research is doing. And then it gets even worse because that is then the information they use for this FISA warrant.”

Smith says, “Exactly, that’s the question that needs to be answered right here. We need to find out exactly why that information was provided to Christopher Steele. We’ve known for a long time, of course, that Steele and the Clinton campaign was providing information to the FBI. It now appears that the FBI was giving information to the Clinton campaign as well. Was that in order to direct the FISA, so that they could obtain the spy warrant?”

Andrew McCabe, an inveterate liar, claimed low-level employees made the mistakes, but the opposite was true.

Watch:

THE FULL REPORT CAN BE READ HERE