Steele manipulated Obama officials to get dossier into hands of FBI

Rowan Scarborough:

A senior Barack Obama State Department official gave the green light to an FBI agent in 2016 to meet with dossier writer Christopher Steele, a meeting that touched off a relationship that would fuel the ongoing investigation into possible Donald Trump-Russia election collusion.

The disclosure that Victoria Nuland started the process is contained in “Russian Roulette,” a new book out on Tuesday by Yahoo News report Michael Isikoff and Mother Jones magazine’s David Corn.
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Mr. Steele, who was excited over his findings about Mr. Trump supposed dalliance with Russian prostitutes and purported collusion with the Kremlin, pressed his handler, Glenn Simpson, of Fusion GPS, to let him go to the FBI.

Mr. Simpson agreed. Mr. Steele telephoned Michael Gaeta, an FBI agent with whom he worked on soccer corruption who was then stationed at the U.S. embassy in Rome.

“I can’t discuss it over the phone. You have to come here. Believe me, Mike, you have to come to London,” Mr. Steele told him.

Says “Russian Roulette,” “There were a few hoops Gaeta had to jump through. He was assigned to the U.S. embassy in Rome. The FBI checked with Victoria Nuland’s office at the State Department: Do you support this meeting? Nuland, having found Steele’s reports on Ukraine to have been generally credible, gave the green light.”

“Within a few days, on July 5, Gaeta arrived and headed to Steele’s office near Victoria station. Steele handed him a copy of the report. Gaeta, a seasoned FBI agent, started to read. He turned white. For a while, Gaeta said nothing. Then he remarked, ‘I have to report this to headquarters.’”
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This traces the steps used by Simpson and Steele to get the FBI to spy on their clients political opponent.  Many of the people involved bought into the scurrilous document, despite its lack of verification.