![\"\"](\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/James-Comey-and-Hillary-Clinton-AP-Photos-640x480.jpg\")
<\/a>AP Photos<\/p><\/div>\n
Aaron Klein
\nBreitbart.com<\/p>\n
NEW YORK \u2014 In testimony, James Comey admitted that when he infamously briefed then President-elect Donald Trump about the controversial dossier, Comey did not inform the incoming president about who financed the document.<\/h3>\n
The detail, contained in a second round of Comey\u2019s testimony released earlier this week, is particularly relevant since the embattled former FBI director admitted in\u00a0testimony<\/a>\u00a0two weeks ago that he was aware the dossier authored by former British spy Christopher Steele was financed by Democrats who opposed Trump.<\/p>\n Comey\u2019s seeming withholding of information from Trump about the political origins of the dossier raises further questions. Comey last year\u00a0stated<\/a>\u00a0that he pushed back against a request from Trump to possibly investigate the origins of \u201csalacious material\u201d \u2013 meaning the dossier \u2014 that the agency possessed in the course of its investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n In testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees on Monday, Comey was asked whether he informed Trump about the dossier\u2019s financing.<\/p>\n Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) asked: \u201cIn this meeting, did you tell the President who had financed the dossier?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d was Comey\u2019s simple reply.<\/p>\n Jordan was referring to Comey\u2019s early January 2017 official briefing to Trump about the dossier.\u00a0 That briefing was subsequently leaked to the news media, with CNN on January 10, 2017 breaking the\u00a0story<\/a>\u00a0that the contents of the dossier were presented during classified briefings one week earlier to Trump and then-President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n Prior to CNN\u2019s report leaking the briefings, which was picked up by news agencies worldwide, the contents of the dossier had been circulating among news media outlets, but the sensational claims were largely considered too risky to publish.<\/p>\n Questions have been raised on the need to include the dossier\u2019s wild and unsubstantiated charges in the classified briefings, which were reportedly conducted by Comey, CIA Director John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and NSA Director Admiral Mike Rogers. Comey\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0stayed in the room alone with Trump afterwards to orally brief the incoming president on the most salacious allegations.\u00a0 In his latest testimony, Comey stated that some of the dossier\u2019s other charges were included in written material presented to Trump during the course of the briefing.<\/p>\n With his latest testimony, Comey has now reconfirmed that Trump was not told at the briefing, which took place at Trump Tower in New York, that the dossier had been paid for by Trump\u2019s primary political opponents, namely Hillary Clinton\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) via the Perkin Coie law firm.<\/p>\n In testimony to the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month, Comey conceded he knew Democrats funded the dossier when he was asked about his knowledge of Steele\u2019s political patrons.<\/p>\n Comey stated:<\/p>\n I thought he was retained as part of a Republican-financed effort \u2014 retained by Republicans adverse to Mr. Trump during the primary season, and then his work was underwritten after that by Democrats opposed to Mr. Trump during the general election season.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cWhen did you learn that his work went from being financed by what you described as Republicans to what you described as Democrats?\u201d Comey was asked.<\/p>\n The former FBI director was also asked whether he learned about political actors financing Steele \u201cbefore there were any court filings\u201d \u2014 a clear reference to the FISA application to obtain a warrant to conduct surveillance on Carter Page, a former adviser to President Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign. Comey first signed the FISA application in late October 2016.<\/p>\n Comey replied: \u201cI certainly learned of it before the end of October. And I think the filing that you\u2019re referring to obliquely was at the end of October sometime. So, it was before that.\u201d<\/p>\n Comey\u2019s FISA application to conduct surveillance did not specifically state that the FBI had information that Steele was being paid in connection with any U.S. political party, according to House documents. In other words, Comey may have kept from the FISA court information that would raise questions about the dossier charges, which were cited as evidence against Page in the FISA applications.<\/p>\n A House Intelligence Committee\u00a0memo<\/a>\u00a0released last February documented that as FBI director, Comey signed three FISA applications to spy on Page with the dossier serving as part of the basis for the warrant requests.<\/p>\n \u201cNeither the initial application in October 2016, nor any of the renewals, disclose or reference the role of the DNC, Clinton campaign, or any party\/campaign in funding Steele\u2019s efforts, even though the political origins of the Steele dossier were then known to senior and FBI officials,\u201d the memo states.<\/p>\n Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee\u00a0released a\u00a0rebuttal<\/a>\u00a0of the House memo that confirms\u00a0the key contention that the FBI and DOJ both failed to inform the FISA court that Steele\u2019s dossier was funded by Hillary Clinton\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) via the Perkins Coie law firm.<\/p>\n The Democratic memo quotes a footnote from the FISA application, which says that Steele:<\/p>\n was approached by an identified U.S. person who indicated to Source #1 [Steele] that a U.S.-based law firm had hired the identified U.S. person to conduct research regarding Candidate #1\u2019s ties to Russia. (The identified U.S. person and Source #1 have a long-standing business relationship.) The identified U.S. person hired Source #1 to conduct this research. The identified U.S. person never advised Source #1 as to the motivation behind the research into candidate #1\u2019s ties to Russia.\u00a0The FBI speculates that the identified U.S. person was likely looking for information that could be used to discredit Candidate #1\u2019s campaign.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That footnote was further confirmed when the Trump administration released a redacted\u00a0version<\/a>\u00a0of the FISA applications last July.<\/p>\n The statement in Comey\u2019s FISA application that \u201cthe FBI speculates\u201d that Steele \u201cwas likely looking for information that could be used to discredit\u201d Trump\u2019s campaign is a far cry from informing the court that the dossier utilized in the FISA warrant was paid for by Trump\u2019s primary political opponents, namely Clinton and the DNC.<\/p>\n