FBI Used Russian Disinformation to Launch Investigation Into Trump, Audit Finds

The FBI was advised that a portion of the infamous Steele dossier was likely the product of a Russian disinformation campaign meant to harm U.S. foreign relations, according to previously-redacted footnotes from the inspector general report on the investigation of the Trump campaign. A source also informed the FBI that former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier, had frequent contacts with Russian oligarchs which raised concerns at the bureau’s Transnational Organized Crime Intelligence Unit, one of the declassified footnotes says. The Department of Justice released the footnotes (pdf) in response to a request from Senators Ron…