This comes rom a batch of footnotes to a December 2019 report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz that were declassified this month in two tranches, one from the Justice Department and one from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The 400-plus-page document pounded the FBI for its handling of applications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to wiretap former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
The footnotes refer to former MI6 intelligence official Christopher Steele as the “Primary Sub-source.” When questions Steele said that what he reported in the dossier used to justify eavesdropping on Page, wasn’t really reporting. It was more like chit chat with people who weren’t necessarily informed.
This is how Steele put it:
“When interviewed by the FBI, the Primary Sub‐source stated that he/she did not view his/her contacts as a network of sources, but rather as friends with whom he/she has conversations about current events and government relations.”
