FBI offered British spy Christopher Steele $1 MILLION to back up the now debunked dossier

A witness in the trial of a source for the infamous Steele dossier testified that the FBI offered ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele “up to $1 million” to substantiate claims he included in his reports.

Brian Auten, an FBI surveillance analyst, testified that the agency made the offer in 2016, as agents attempted to verify information on the file, including lecherous unverified allegations against the future president.

Auten testified that Steele didn’t get the money because he couldn’t prove the charges. CNN reported.

The disclosure of the substantial financial incentive being offered came in the trial of Igor Danchenko, one of Steele’s key sources, who is accused of lying to the FBI when asked for his information. He was charged on five counts of making false statements to the FBI.

Special Prosecutor John Durham, who was appointed by Trump, is continuing the case in Alexandria, Virginia, the courtroom. His years of investigation have resulted in a single conviction — of FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith for falsifying an email used to justify surveillance. The trial of Hillary Clinton’s campaign attorney Michael Sussmann resulted in an acquittal.

Steele, an ex-MI 6 intelligence officer, compiled the file as a series of messages. He had been a paid FBI informant.

Prosecutors said Danchenko, a Russian analyst and researcher based in Virginia, fabricated one source and concealed another source of information as the FBI rushed to confirm information on the file in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election. They accuse him of lying to the FBI when he was questioned about information he had provided.

They also pointed to an area of ​​damage — the FBI relied on some of the information on the file to obtain warrants for phone and email surveillance from former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page, a US citizen. They were investigating an alleged conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia — in an investigation that would make headlines.

Prosecutors said Danchenko, a Russian analyst and researcher based in Virginia, fabricated one source and hid another source from the FBI.

The testimony of an FBI official failed to support Donald Trump’s repeated claim that the investigation into Russia was based on the dossier

“Those lies mattered,” prosecutor Michael Keilty said, because the FBI presented false information to a foreign intelligence oversight court.

Page was never charged with a crime.

Prosecutors say Danchenko lied when he told officers he had received information from Sergei Millian, head of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce. But they said there is no evidence the two ever spoke, pointing to phone records.

“This case is about protecting the functions and integrity of our institutions,” Keilty added.

“This case is about protecting the function and integrity of our government institutions,” Durham said.

Durham’s prosecutors focused on the treatment of Page, an area that has long been a focus of Trump and Congressional Republicans, and featured in a damning report by the Justice Department’s IG.

Danchenko’s lawyer objected that his client had been honest and that the FBI asked his client vague questions during their 2016 meeting.

At one point, Durham asked Auten why the DOJ opened its investigation into Russia in the summer of 2016.

But his response ran counter to Trump’s repeated claim that the investigation was based on the dirty dossier.

Instead, his response pointed to the origin of the investigation, which has been repeatedly reported: a drunken meeting in a hotel bar in May 2016 between Trump’s foreign campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and an Australian diplomat after the aide said the Kremlin was dirty. had on Hillary Clinton. The diplomat provided the information to the US