Despite receiving little news coverage, on 28 March 2018 US Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz launched a probe into the FBI's efforts to surveil low-level former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, based partially on information provided by Christopher Steele.
READ MORE: Page Files New Court Motion Against DNC Over Alleged Harm From Steele Dossier
The former MI6 operative worked with the Bureau as a confidential informant 2010 — 2016 — Horowitz is seeking to ascertain if Steele was a credible source, and whether the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by relying on Steele's now utterly-discredited 'Trump-Russia' dossier to obtain surveillance warrants against Page, who'd already left the campaign team when the FBI applied for the warrants under FISA.
The investigation could conclude as early as May — and a former US official interviewed by Horowitz told Politico the Inspector General's final report could well "deeply undermine" Steele — the same article, published 17th April, also stated the probe would "cast doubt on the veracity of the information Steele provided about Page the FBI included in its application for a FISA warrant".
Steele has also previously declined to meet the Senate Intelligence Committee — although is reported to have met with Mueller's investigators in the summer of 2017.
Half-Baked
Page became a person of interest after he appeared in a series of memos Steele produced for Fusion GPS, a research firm investigating the Trump campaign on behalf of the Democratic National Committee — the memos would in sum become his notorious dossier.
Horowitz is also investigating Steele's other work as a confidential FBI informant, and already concluded Steele significantly over-hyped the significance and scale of his role in an investigation into the infamous 2010 FIFA bribery scandal.
Steele claimed to have delivered information to the bureau's Eurasian Organized Crime squad about corruption within the international soccer league, which led to the ouster of FIFA President Sepp Blatter and indictment of several league officials. However, Horowitz has concluded Steele merely introduced FBI agents to a journalist who'd obtained hacked documents — and the FBI formalising their relationship with Steele on the basis of this somewhat negligible contribution may represent an error of judgement on the FBI's part.
Horowitz is also scrutinizing Steele's links to Ohr, the Justice Department official. Ohr and Steele met in Washington, D.C., on July 30, 2016. Ohr became Steele's handler shortly after the 2016 election. The FBI had cut ties with Steele after finding out he had unauthorized contacts with the media.