Two Republican House Intel staffers flew to London to track down Christopher Steele [View all]

[L. Coyote]

Hunt for Trump dossier author inflames Russia probe
An overseas trip to contact a former British spy exposes friction among House, Senate investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller.
By ALI WATKINS - 08/04/2017

Two Republican House Intelligence Committee staffers traveled to London earlier this summer to track down the former British intelligence operative who compiled a controversial dossier on President Donald Trump and Russia, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The previously unreported trip underscores the importance of the 35-page dossier Christopher Steele wrote last year to Congressional probes into possible collusion between Moscow and the 2016 Trump campaign.

It has also inflamed simmering tensions between House and Senate investigators as they pursue parallel probes into the Trump-Russia connection. House Intelligence Committee Republicans did not tell Democrats on the House panel, the Senate Intelligence Committee nor special counsel Robert Mueller’s office that the investigators were pursuing Steele.

The House staffers left their contact information at two addresses associated with Steele, a former agent for Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service. One of those locations was Steele’s lawyer’s office, where the former spy was meeting with his counsel when the House investigators showed up.

Senate officials—whom NBC News has reported were negotiating their own interview with Steele—fear the aggressive move could spook Steele and derail his potential cooperation ................

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