A former intelligence official predicted British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s intention to meet with Justice Department investigators “will be a car wreck” and a “hot mess.”
Philip Mudd, a counterterrorism analyst for CNN and critic of President Trump, said on Tuesday he was confident Steele would have to tell the U.S. officials “no” if asked whether he could verify parts of his dossier that contained salacious claims about Trump’s ties to Russia. That “no” would be disastrous for Steele in an interview with U.S. officials, Mudd claimed.
Attorney General William Barr declared his intention to look into the origins of the Russia investigation and examine how the DOJ and FBI conducted themselves. Trump recently gave Barr full declassification authority to aid in this inquiry, and he selected U.S. Attorney John Durham to serve as his right-hand man in the investigation. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz launched his own investigation into allegations of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse a year ago.
An article this week from the Times in the United Kingdom said Steele was open to meeting with U.S. investigators and strongly indicated that Steele would speak with Horowitz’s team rather than Barr and Durham.
In a segment with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday, Mudd condemned Steele’s decision, warning that “if you go to car races looking for car wrecks, this is significant” and predicted that “this will be a car wreck.”
Mudd, a former deputy director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center and ex-deputy director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, said he did not think Steele would be able to back up the allegations contained in his dossier under questioning by U.S. officials. “Christopher Steele shows up in front of the Department of Justice and, I’m guessing, doesn’t have quality answers for the quality of that information in the Steele dossier,” Mudd said. “I can’t believe he has perfect answers about the origins of the Steele dossier.”
Mudd guessed that Steele is probably trying to clear his name, but said he does not think that would work. “If I were him, I’d go to Disney World. I would not go to the Department of Justice, because it will not end up well,” he said.
Steele’s dossier was used extensively in the FBI’s FISA applications and renewals to obtain surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Republican investigators have expressed concern about how FBI officials used unverified research to obtain warrants, and also did not reveal Steele’s Democratic benefactors to the FISA Court.
Mudd said Steele’s dossier, compiled while he was working for opposition research firm Fusion GPS, was not meant to be an intelligence document.
“He’s supposed to gather the information and then the Republicans or Democrats use it in a political ad. This is not an intelligence game, this is a political game,” he said in a separate appearance with CNN’s Don Lemon.
