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Comey said he only knew what he did about the Steele dossier because he had "seen it in the media." He said he knew Republicans had first funded it, but never knew about any Democratic party involvement.
"When did you learn that the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign had funded Christopher Steele's work?" Baier asked.
"I still don’t know that for a fact," Comey said about when he learned the DNC funded the Christopher Steele dossier. "I’ve only seen it in the media. I never knew exactly which Democrats funded. I knew it was funded first by Republicans."
"But that’s not true," Baier jumped in.
"I'm sorry," a confused Comey said.
"The dossier that Christopher Steele worked on was funded by Republicans," Baier told him.
"My understanding was his work started funded as oppo research funded by Republicans," Comey told Baier.
"So [Washington] Free Beacon said that they had Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS on a kind of a retainer but they did not fund the Christopher Steele memo or the dossier. That was initiated by Democrats," Baier said to Comey.
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In her typed summary, Kavalec wrote that Steele told her the Russians had constructed a “technical/human operation run out of Moscow targeting the election” that recruited emigres in the United States to “do hacking and recruiting.”
She quoted Steele as saying, “Payments to those recruited are made out of the Russian Consulate in Miami,” according to a copy of her summary memo obtained under open records litigation by the conservative group Citizens United. Kavalec bluntly debunked that assertion in a bracketed comment: “It is important to note that there is no Russian consulate in Miami.”
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Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland says she instructed her staff to send the information they got from Steele to the bureau immediately and to cease contact with the informer because "this is about U.S. politics, and not the work of — not the business of the State Department, and certainly not the business of a career employee who is subject to the Hatch Act."
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October 27, 2017 7:02 pm
Since its launch in February of 2012, the Washington Free Beacon has retained third party firms to conduct research on many individuals and institutions of interest to us and our readers. In that capacity, during the 2016 election cycle we retained Fusion GPS to provide research on multiple candidates in the Republican presidential primary, just as we retained other firms to assist in our research into Hillary Clinton. All of the work that Fusion GPS provided to the Free Beacon was based on public sources, and none of the work product that the Free Beacon received appears in the Steele dossier. The Free Beacon had no knowledge of or connection to the Steele dossier, did not pay for the dossier, and never had contact with, knowledge of, or provided payment for any work performed by Christopher Steele. Nor did we have any knowledge of the relationship between Fusion GPS and the Democratic National Committee, Perkins Coie, and the Clinton campaign.
Representatives of the Free Beacon approached the House Intelligence Committee today and offered to answer what questions we can in their ongoing probe of Fusion GPS and the Steele dossier. But to be clear: We stand by our reporting, and we do not apologize for our methods. We consider it our duty to report verifiable information, not falsehoods or slander, and we believe that commitment has been well demonstrated by the quality of the journalism that we produce. The First Amendment guarantees our right to engage in news-gathering as we see fit, and we intend to continue doing just that as we have since the day we launched this project.
Matthew Continetti
Editor in Chief
Michael Goldfarb
Chairman
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Fusion GPS was hired in mid-2016 by a lawyer for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee to dig into Trump's background. Earlier that year, the firm had investigated Trump for a conservative website funded by a Republican donor, but that client stopped paying for the work after it became clear that Trump would win the GOP presidential nomination, according to people familiar with the matter.
After Democrats began paying for the research, Fusion GPS hired Steele, a former senior officer with Britain's intelligence service, MI6, to gather intelligence about any ties between the Kremlin and Trump and his associates.
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"none of the work product that the Free Beacon received appears in the Steele dossier. The Free Beacon had no knowledge of or connection to the Steele dossier, did not pay for the dossier, and never had contact with, knowledge of, or provided payment for any work performed by Christopher Steele. Nor did we have any knowledge of the relationship between Fusion GPS and the Democratic National Committee, Perkins Coie, and the Clinton campaign.