Christopher Steele: Client wanted pre-2016 election deadline for dossier

The author of the infamous Trump dossier admitted to a top State Department official that he was encouraged by a client to get his research out before the 2016 election.

British ex-spy Christopher Steele met with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec on Oct. 11, along with Tatyana Duran, Steele’s colleague at his Orbis Security firm.

A memo about the meeting was obtained by conservative group Citizens United through open-records litigation and reported by The Hill on Tuesday. Though the notes are redacted, the “Background” section of the document is visible.

“Orbis undertook the investigation into the Russia/Trump connection at the behest of an institution he declined to identify that had been hacked,” Kavalec wrote, appearing to refer to the Democratic National Committee, which was hacked during the election.

“The institution approached them based on the recommendation of [Fusion GPS co-founder] Glenn Simpson and [Fusion GPS partner] Peter Fritsch (specialists in economic crime, formerly of the [Wall Street Journal]) and is keen to see this information come to light prior to November 8. Orbis undertook the investigation in June of 2016,” Kavalec added.

The timing of the meeting is notable, as it is 10 days before the FBI used Steele’s unverified dossier on President Trump’s ties to Russia to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to wiretap campaign adviser Carter Page. Three renewals would follow.

Steele claims that he viewed his research as “raw intelligence” that “needed to be analyzed and further investigated/verified.”