#FBI gave Steele dossier ‘unjustified credence,’ Senate Intel Committee says

The FBI bungled its response to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election by giving “unjustified credence” to a controversial dossier of unverified allegations against President Trump, the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday.

In a nearly 1,000-page report, the committee called aspects of the FBI probe “flawed,” including its treatment of political opposition research against then-candidate Trump compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.

“Regarding the Steele Dossier, FBI gave Steele’s allegations unjustified credence, based on an incomplete understanding of Steele’s past reporting record,” according to the report.

“Further, FBI did not effectively adjust its approach to Steele’s reporting once one of Steele’s subsources provided information that raises serious concerns about the source descriptions in the Steele Dossier.”

The committee noted that the FBI used the dossier in an application and renewals for a surveillance warrant against then-Trump campaign adviser Carter Page and “advocated for it to be included in the [Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference] before taking the necessary steps to validate assumptions about Steele’s credibility.”

“The Committee further found that Steele’s reporting lacked rigor and transparency about the quality of the sourcing,” according to the report.

The FBI probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election — dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane” — is under review by Connecticut US Attorney John Durham, whose investigation led to the announcement Friday that a former bureau lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, will plead guilty to altering an email used to renew the surveillance of Page.

Trump last week told The Post that he expects Durham to release a report on his investigation “soon.”

The Senate committee also criticized the FBI for treating Democratic National Committee officials with kid gloves after their emails were hacked by Russian military officers ahead of the 2016 election.

The bureau’s “‘victim-driven’ response paradigm, whereby hacked entities and organizations are treated as victims and the FBI relies on their cooperation to access and navigate targeted computer systems, hindered FBI’s ability to investigate the cyberattack with appropriate urgency,” according to the report.

The Senate committee also found that while the FBI “could have, and should have, escalated is communications to the DNC much sooner than it did,” Democratic officials “did not assign appropriate weight to the FBI’s warnings.”

The FBI declined to comment.