[The Hill] House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) tried unsuccessfully earlier this month to meet with the heads of three British intelligence agencies in his efforts to probe the so-called "Steele dossier," according to media reports.The Atlantic on Tuesday first reported Nunes’s attempt to meet with the MI5, MI6 and GCHQ agencies while in London. The magazine reported that Nunes was seeking information on Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer who compiled a dossier of opposition research on President Trump during the 2016 campaign.
Representatives from the agencies considered meeting with Nunes but were unable to because of scheduling conflicts, according to Reuters. Nunes was looking into Steele’s service record and his contacts with Bruce Ohr, a Department of Justice (DOJ) official who has faced attacks from Trump and his allies over his ties to the dossier.
According to Reuters and The Atlantic, Britain’s deputy national security adviser, Madeline Alessandri, met with Nunes during his trip.
In February, Republicans on the House Intelligence panel, which is chaired by Nunes, voted to release a memo claiming that DOJ abused government surveillance powers when it surveilled Trump campaign aide Carter Page during the 2016 campaign.
The memo alleged that the surveillance warrant for Page was based on the Steele dossier, which makes a number of salacious allegations about Trump’s ties to Russia. The dossier was partially funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
The FBI harshly criticized the release of the memo, saying in a statement at the time that it had "grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy."