(Washington,
DC) –
Judicial Watch announced on May 16,1017 that it
filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department
of Justice for records of communications and payments between the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and former British intelligence officer
Christopher Steele and his private firm, Orbis Business Intelligence (Judicial Watch
v. U.S. Department of Justice (No.
1:17-cv-00916)).
This is
the fifth Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (see here, here, here, here)
related to the surveillance, unmasking, and illegal leaking targeting President
Trump and his associates.
The
suit was filed after the Department of Justice failed to respond to
a March 8, 2017, FOIA request seeking:
· All
records of communications between any official, employee, or representative of
the FBI and Mr. Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer and
the owner of the private firm Orbis Business Intelligence.
· All
records related to the proposed, planned, or actual payment of any funds to Mr.
Steele and/or Orbis Business Intelligence.
· All
records produced in preparation for, during, or pursuant to any meetings or
telephonic conversations between any official, employee, or representative of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Mr. Christopher Steele and/or any
employee or representative of Orbis Business Intelligence.
The
Trump dossier was purported to contain “embarrassing material” which could be
used to blackmail Trump. BuzzFeedpublished
the 35-page document following a January 10, 2017, report by CNN stating
President Obama was presented classified documents alleging Russian
Intelligence had “compromising personal and financial information” about Trump.
CNN and
many other news organizations refused to publish the dossier because they had
not “independently corroborated the specific allegations,” and former Director
of National Intelligence James Clapper reportedly said “we
couldn’t corroborate the sourcing, particularly the second and third order
sources.” According to Fox News,
former FBI Director James Comey insisted that the dossier be included in
January’s intelligence report on alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. election.
“The
so-called Trump dossier is at the center anti-Trump Russian collusion
conspiracy theory,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It is
disconcerting that the Obama FBI and Justice Department trafficked this
document and evidently used it to justify unprecedented surveillance of the
Trump team. Our new lawsuit seeks to expose the truth about this
dossier. Maybe with new leadership at the FBI, we’ll finally get some
answers.”
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