Emails reveal Obama's special protections for Steele dossier

Christopher Steele

State Department employees sought to provide special protections for the unsubstantiated and salacious claims about Donald Trump in the Hillary Clinton-funded "dossier," according to emails obtained by government watchdog Judicial Watch and the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The anti-Trump dossier produced by former British spy Christopher Steele -- largely debunked by Robert Mueller's special counsel probe -- was the basis for the Obama administration's effort to obtain warrants to spy on the Trump campaign in 2016.

Neil Patel, co-founder of the Daily Caller, said mysteries still surround the dossier.

"We still do not have all the answers about how the State Department used opposition research collected by a foreign spy regarding President Trump and his campaign," he said. "These documents, obtained through our lawsuit filed together with Judicial Watch, raises further questions about what exactly went on at Foggy Bottom."

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The emails include a discussion about using a private, non-government email system to forward "potentially sensitive information" from Steele.

The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the State Department that produced the emails was filed after the government refused to respond to FOIA requests. Judicial Watch sought communications between State Department officials and Steele and his company, Orbis Business Intelligence.

Barack Obama (Photo: Twitter)

In a Dec. 8, 2014, email, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for European Affairs Paul Jones suggested to Special Coordinator for Libya Jonathan Winer that he 'flip' reports from Steele’s firm to a more secure email system, "given our ongoing concerns about security of opennet."

When Winer said that might result in delays, then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland ordered that it be done anyway.

"Winer replies that he would, 'have [his assistant] Nina Miller send them to you on my behalf high side. … I will send them to her from my non-State email account, not copying myself. She will then send them to us. You know who they are coming from, so even high side from here I will just refer to them as 'O Reports,' and strip out any other identifying information as to sourcing,'" Judicial Watch said.

"Later in the redacted discussion, Winer changes the distribution list and writes, 'For this group only – [redacted]'. Secretary John Kerry’s Chief of Staff Jonathan Finer responds, 'As Jonathan predicted [redacted],'" JW said.

"No wonder Jonathan Winer, Steele's ally at the State Department, refused to talk to the DOJ IG, he seems to have circumvented the rules in pushing Steele's unreliable reports to his Obama State Department colleagues," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

"Our lawsuits have documented that the Obama-Kerry State Department was a hotbed of anti-Trump activity."

Fitton said Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham "would do well to focus like a laser on the State Department."

Durham has an open criminal investigation into the origins of the Obama administration's probe of the Trump campaign.