FBI Offered To Pay Christopher Steele ‘Significantly’ To Dig Up Dirt On Michael Flynn

• Former British spy Christopher Steele peddled an unfounded rumor in December 2016 that Michael Flynn had an extramarital affair with a Russian woman, according to documents released earlier in May. 
• Months before Steele discussed Flynn, the FBI offered to pay the ex-spy to collect intelligence on Flynn and other Trump associates who were the targets of a counterintelligence investigation. 
• An FBI source provided information about Flynn that matches what Steele provided the bureau, an FBI memo from early 2017 also said. 
• Rumors about Flynn and a Russian-British woman, Svetlana Lokhova, began circulating in the media in March 2017. 

An FBI offer to pay former British spy Christopher Steele to collect intelligence on Michael Flynn in the weeks before the 2016 election has been one of the more overlooked revelations in a Justice Department inspector general’s report released in December.

The reference to the FBI proposal, which was made in an Oct. 3, 2016, meeting in an unidentified European city, has received virtually no press attention. But it might have new significance following the recent release of government documents that show that Steele peddled an unfounded rumor that Flynn had an extramarital affair with a Russian woman in the United Kingdom.


It is not clear how and when Steele came across the rumor, or if it was the result of the FBI asking him to look into Flynn.

The inspector general’s report, released on Dec. 9, 2019, said that FBI agents offered to pay Steele “significantly” to collect intelligence from three separate “buckets” that the bureau was pursuing as part of Crossfire Hurricane, its counterintelligence probe of four Trump campaign associates.

One bucket was “Additional intelligence/reporting on specific, named individuals (such as [Carter Page] or [Flynn]) involved in facilitating the Trump campaign-Russian relationship,” the IG report stated.

FBI agents also sought contact with “any individuals or sub sources” who Steele could provide to “serve as cooperating witnesses to assist in identifying persons involved in the...

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