SSCI Briefing on Former Employee of Christopher Steele 

Draft Talking Points as of 14 February 2018 

1. {U) Introduction/Caveats

• As agreed between the Chairman, Vice Chairman, and FBI Director Wray, the

FBI is providing an overview briefing on with the individual who served 

as one of Christopher Steele's primary sub-sources for the information that has

subsequently become known as the "Steele" or "Trump" dossier.

• Consistent with the January 18th letter from the Chairman and the Vice

Chairman, I will not disclose identity. I will, however, discuss the

circumstances under which the FBI identified, debriefed, .

• As we have discussed on multiple occasions in the course of our briefings on

Christopher Steele's reporting, , as well as the identities of his own subsources, remains our paramount concern with respect to the Steele dossier.

• We have successfully protected from public disclosure the overwhelming

majority of the individuals who contributed source reporting to the Steele Dossier.

We continue to prioritize efforts to protect the identities of these individuals based

upon legitimate concerns about their safety.

• Before continuing with this briefing, I want to strongly emphasize the

sensitivity of this information. Although I will not be revealing the specific identity of

or his own sub-sources, what I will disclose today is extremely revealing.

We want to be supportive of the Committee's investigation, .

2. How we identified .

• As the Committee has been made aware through our production 

documents, we assessed that Steele relied on one primary sub-source in generating

the documents that ultimately comprised the dossier.

• We reached this conclusion after debriefing Steele in early-October 2016.

Following that meeting, it was apparent that Steele maintained a primary sub1 

Sources and Methods the Primary Subsource Sources and Methods Sources and Methods the Primary Subsource Sources and Methods the Primary Subsource Sources and Methods

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source, and that this individual collected information from a range of 

largely unwitting contacts, . 

• 

3. Background/Biography

• Steele's sub-source-who I'll refer to for the remainder of the

briefing- . Consistent with his academic background -which

he studied at -his professional career .

• 

• 

• 

4. Findings from January 2017 debriefings.

A. Background/Initial Relationship with Steele 

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• The FBI conducted a series of voluntary interviews with over

the course of three days in late-January 2017. At the conclusion of these

interviews­which were conducted by an 

• In the course of the interviews, discussed 

• first met Christopher Steele , which was an 

. Later in , Steele contacted and offered him

full-time employment.

• 

• claimed that his broader network of associates and

acquaintances , but they were not aware of the .

• made it clear to the FBI that he never had insight into the

identities of Steele's clients, nor did he ever see any finished Orbis intelligence

reports, at least until the dossier was published by Buzzfeed.

• In the course of the interviews, disclosed that he had developed

his source network through .

• He also described his , which included not communicating 

with Steele while , not compiling detailed notes from his discussions 

, and conducting oral debriefs with Steele in the at the 

conclusion of operational travel .

• In response to multiple questions about his relationships with 

, initially claimed to have no interaction with individuals in 

, but later referred to his previous contacts 

." He also discussed the 

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• While we believed that at times sought to minimize his

connections to , his disclosures regarding his relationships with 

were generally consistent .

B. Reporting Related to the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election 

• Prior to early 2016, conducted research on likely 

in support of clients who had hired Orbis 

• In March 2016, Steele asked to begin researching whether Paul

Manafort had engaged in corrupt business practices in Ukraine or elsewhere in Russia

or Eurasia. described the request as strange, since Steele had never asked

him to research anything related to U.S. domestic issues. told us that he

did not feel well-postured to respond to this tasking, as he was not familiar with

Manafort.

• advised us that he received a subsequent tasking from Steele in

late-May 2016 to seek related to the U.S. Presidential election, to include 

compromising materials on Donald Trump.

• could not recall if he had been tasked to research both

candidates Trump and Clinton, however his attorney advised that had

previously stated that Steele tasked to pursue compromising material on

both candidates.

• advised that Steele placed no higher priority on the electionrelated research compared to other ongoing projects, and that he was focused on a 

separate project . advised that the election-related work

continued to be a "side project" until approximately July­August 2016.

• received two subsequent taskings from Steele. The first was to

investigate Sergey lvanov's potential role in the U.S. Presidential election. The

second was to collect information on Carter Page, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort,

and one or two additional individuals could not recall.

• relied upon to collect the reporting that he

contributed to the dossier. . Overall, it appears

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the Primary Subsource the Primary Subsource the Primary Subsource The Primary Subsource The Primary Subsource The Primary Subsource The Primary Subsource the Primary Subsource the Primary Subsource The Primary Subsource Source Identifying The Primary Subsource

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that reporting was integrated into at least ten of the Orbis reports that 

comprise the dossier. 

C. Lines of Election Reporting 

• I'll now turn to description ofthe various contacts who provided

him information that eventually contributed to the dossier.

• .

• 

• initially received the information about Trump's alleged sexual

activities at the Ritz Carlton from a with a wide social circle. This

individual told that it was a "well known story" and recommended

corroborate the story through hotel employees. claimed that

none of the hotel employees with whom he spoke denied the story.

gave Steele the names of the staffers with whom he spoke, and reported the story

to Steele as unconfirmed rumor and speculation.

• provided Steele with information that reportedly originated from a

former official. claimed that the former 

• claimed to have spoken directly with an individual he believed

was . Two U.S.-based had suggested contact

. subsequently had a 10-15 minute telephone call with

an individual who did not identify himself, but who, from the context and timing of

the call,

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believed was . was the source for 

reporting on Paul Manafort's use of Carter Page and others as 

intermediaries with Russian government leadership, and the reporting about an 

ongoing exchange of information between the Trump team and the Kremlin. 

D. Perspective on the Dossier. Relationship with Steele. and Additional Disclosures 

• As mentioned, Steele's finished reports were not made available to 

prior the publication of the dossier in Buzzfeed. Since the FBI interview with

took place after the dossier was publicly available, we were able to

discuss with him whether he believed his information was accurately characterized

in Steele's reports.

• advised that several reports appeared to be derived from

multiple sources, to include the information he provided to Steele as well as

information that he had not collected. He did not cite any significant concerns with

the way his reporting was characterized in the dossier to the extent he could identify

it.

• described the structure of his debriefings with Steele, which

were conducted one-on-one in Orbis offices . advised that

he distinguished between what his sources had told him and his assessment of

the information. Steele often pressed multiple times to ensure he was

confident in how he characterized certain reporting. Steele also often urged

to follow-up with his contacts.

• claimed he resisted reaching out to his contacts with follow-up

questions on the election issue due to the sensitivity of the topic, as well as

 concerns that his efforts would become known 

5.

• 

• 

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the Primary Subsource individual Primary Subsource's Source the Primary Subsource the Primary Subsource the Primary Subsource The Primary Subsource The Primary Subsource the Primary Subsource the Primary Subsource The Primary Subsource the Primary Subsource Sources and Methods Sources and Methods

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6. Potential SSCI Staff Q&A

• Does still maintain a relationship with Steele and/or Orbis

International?

o was an employee of Orbis for prior to the

publication of the dossier. He does still maintain a relationship with Orbis and

is in periodic contact with Steele. Steele had repeatedly signaled directly and

indirectly to the FBI-through debriefings when he was a CHS and via Bruce

Ohr-that he was extremely concerned about well-being. It is only

natural and logical that Steele maintains contact with given his role

in compiling the dossier.

o We believe Steele knows that we have identified , and that

he has surmised that we've spoken with him at least once. 

• 

o 

o 

o 

• How have discussions with affected the, FBl's understanding of or

confidence in the Steele dossier?

o At minimum, our discussions with confirm that the dossier

was not fabricated by Steele. Our discussions with confirmed 

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that he operates within high level academic and government circles, 

maintains trusted relationships with individuals who are capable of reporting 

on the material he collected for Steele, and that Steele and 

utilized reasonably sound intelligence tradecraft. 

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