The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
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Posted: Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:34 PM
House Intel Committee Chair Devin Nunes Launches "Phase Two" Of Probe Into Origins of Unverified Anti-Trump Dossier
In a letter obtained by Fox News, committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., posed a string of dossier-related questions to current and former intelligence; law enforcement; and State Department officials. He specifically wants to know when they learned the document was funded by Democratic sources, and how it was used to obtain one or more surveillance warrants at the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
In the Feb. 20-dated letter, Nunes even threatened to issue subpoenas.
"If you do not provide timely answers on a voluntary basis, the Committee will initiate compulsory process,” he wrote.
Nunes, with cooperation from the White House, earlier this month released a controversial memo alleging the anti-Trump dossier – compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and funded by the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign – was crucial in the application for a surveillance warrant against Trump associate Carter Page.
Democrats have called that memo misleading and want to release a memo of their own – though have been delayed amid national security objections from the White House. Amid the firestorm, Nunes told Fox News earlier this month that his committee would pursue “phase two” of the investigation.
He suggested this would include scrutinizing the State Department and other agencies.
The new letter includes a dozen questions about the dossier, including how the officials in question learned of the document’s Democratic funding and whether they held meetings about the unverified allegations against Trump or took any other official action.
Fox News understands the questionnaire went out to about two-dozen current and former officials.
Among them were Comey, former director of national intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director John Brennan, who testified in May 2017 that the Trump dossier was virtually unknown to him.
“I have no awareness,” Brennan said, when asked by GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy if the FBI ever relied on the dossier as part of any court applications.