Ranking House Intelligence Committee member Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) said it was “likely” he would send another criminal referral to the Department of Justice relating to a meeting between the State Department and anti-Trump dossier author, Christopher Steele.
Speaking to Fox News yesterday, the Washington Examiner reports that Nunes said notes from State Department official Kathleen Kavalec about her October 2016 meeting with Steele were withheld from the House Intelligence Committee during its investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election.
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“It’s likely now, as we do our investigation as to why we didn’t get this information that we’ve just been discussing from the State Department two years ago when we should have received it, there could be another referral coming on obstruction a congressional investigation,” he said.
Matt Palumbo of Bongino.com detailed the contents of Kavalec’s notes last week:
The State Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary Kathleen Kavalac interviewed Steele on October 11th, which she chronicled in handwritten notes that were later typed and given to the FBI. Thanks for a Freedom of Information Act request from ‘Citizens United” these notes were unearthed. In those notes, Kavalec detailed Steele’s story of how Russians constructed a “technical/human operation run out of Moscow targeting the election” that recruited emigres in the United States to “do hacking and recruiting.”
Steele also said that “Payments to those recruited are made out of the Russian Consulate in Miami,” which leads Kavalec to make a note that “there is no Russian consulate in Miami.” That’s only the first comment Kavalec must have seen as damaging to Steele’s credibility.
Kavalec made note of comments that indicated Steele was speaking to the media (a cardinal sin for those working with the FBI, and a violation of his confidentiality agreement. It’s interesting that Steele was eventually fired by the FBI for speaking to the press, but not until after they got the FISA they wanted)….
Kavalec also made note of Steele’s obvious political motivations, noting that Steele’s client (Fusion GPS) “is keen to see this information come to light prior to the November 8 [the election].” She also noted that “Orbis [Steele’s firm] undertook the investigation into the Russia/Trump connection at the behest of an institution he declined to identify that had been hacked.
