FBI was to pay Trump dossier source: report

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON

The FBI planned to pay a former British intelligence officer who penned a dossier alleging salacious details of the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia, according to a report published Tuesday.

Former MI6 agent Christopher Steele wrote the document on behalf of Donald Trump's political opponents as U.S. intelligence agencies were determining Russia was behind a wide-ranging campaign, that included hacking the Democratic National Committee's emails, to interfere in last year's election.

The FBI agreed to pay Steele to continue his work in October - just one month ahead of last year's presidential election, the Washington Post newspaper reported.

But the verbal agreement was derailed as the now infamous document was made public and began to gain nationwide attention.

Trump has sought to dismiss Steele's dossier as "fake news". In addition to collusion with Russian officials in Moscow's influence campaign, the document said Russia had blackmail material on Trump stemming from alleged sexual improprieties in a Moscow hotel.

The details were not confirmed, and Trump has been a harsh critic of their publication.

Steele previously worked with the FBI on an investigation into alleged corruption into FIFA, the international soccer agency.

"Steele was known for the quality of his past work and for the knowledge he had developed over nearly 20 years working on Russia-related issues for British intelligence," the Post reported.

Congress and the FBI are examining the Russian campaign as well as the Trump campaign's alleged ties to the effort.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday "we need to get answers" on the matter.

"We need to make sure that nothing happened that shouldn’t have happened as we go forward," Ryan told the Today Show morning program.