FBI agreed to pay former British spy responsible for Russia dossier: report

The FBI agreed to pay the former British spy who authored a dossier detailing President Trump’s ties to Russia, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The decision to pay former MI6 agent Christopher Steele to continue investigating Trump’s ties to Moscow reportedly came after the U.S. intelligence community concluded that the Kremlin had run an influence campaign to sway the presidential election in favor of the real estate mogul.

The payments, however, never materialized after news of the at-times risque 35-page dossier went public, sources told the Post.

Steele previously worked with the FBI to help U.S. investigators with an inquiry into corruption at FIFA.

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The unverified dossier alleged that the Russians had compromising information about Trump and that the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign colluded with Russian officials.

Steele was initially commissioned to write the dossier by political opponents of Trump. The revelation that the FBI planned to pay the ex-spy for his work signals a belief by the agency that Steele was a credible source, according to the Post.

The dossier as a whole, including its salacious claims, has circulated among intelligence officials and journalists for months but its contents has not been verified.

Still, CNN reported earlier this month that intercepts confirmed that some conversations described in the dossier did take place between specific individuals on the same days and in the same locations described by the document.

Trump has dismissed the dossier as “fake news” and has insisted that none of the information it contains is credible. 

But Moscow’s interference in the election is still the subject of congressional inquiries, and the FBI is investigating the matter.