Auten, who testified in the trial of one of the key sources of the Steele Dossier, alleged that the FBI paid Christopher Steele $1 million to corroborate the claims that he made in his Fusion GPS opposition research memo that was paid for by the Clinton campaign.
Auten further said that the FBI had no information that corroborated the allegations made in the Steele Dossier.
Christopher Steele declined to corroborate the information in the dossier despite being offered $1 million to do so.
Still, the FBI included the Steele Dossier as evidence supporting a FISA warrant to surveil Trump aide Carter Page.
The Justice Department admitted in 2020 that it did not meet the evidentiary burden to acquire a FISA warrant against Page after the Steele dossier was proven to be misinformation.
FOX News Reports–
The FBI offered ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele $1 million to corroborate salacious allegations made in his dossier against former President Donald Trump and members of his 2016 campaign, but he was unable to do so, an FBI official testified Tuesday.
FBI supervisory counterintelligence analyst Brian Auten was the first witness in the trial of Igor Danchenko, the Russian national who served as the primary sub-source for Steele’s anti-Trump dossier and has been charged with five counts of making false statements to the bureau.
Auten testified that he and a group of FBI agents went overseas in early October 2021 to speak with Steele about the dossier. During questioning by Special Counsel John Durham on Tuesday, Auten said that during those meetings the FBI offered Steele $1 million if he could corroborate allegations in the dossier. Auten testified that Steele could not do so.