Ex-FBI Lawyer James Baker Claims He Was ‘Concerned’ With Steele Dossier, But Still Used It To Get Carter Page Spy Warrant

Former FBI general counsel James Baker said Friday he viewed the Steele dossier “skeptically” and was “concerned” about the veracity of the document when the bureau received it before the 2016 election. 

But despite those concerns, Baker was one of the FBI officials who reviewed the Carter Page surveillance warrant application, which relied heavily on information from the dossier. 

The dossier, which former British spy Christopher Steele wrote, has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of the special counsel’s report, which undercut Steele’s core claim of a “well-developed conspiracy of co-ordination” between the Kremlin and Trumpworld. 

Steele, who worked during the 2016 campaign for the Clinton campaign and DNC, alleged Page was one of the Trump campaign’s liaisons to the Kremlin. The first of four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants was granted against Page on Oct. 21, 2016. 

“It was more information that we viewed, that I viewed, skeptically from the outset, and I was concerned about it and had a jaundiced eye, or looked at it with a jaundiced eye right from the outset,” Baker told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd.