Thread by @benrileysmith

EXC: UK Government gave approval for Mueller’s team to interview Christopher Steele on his dossier.

Two agents talked to him for around 12 hours in a posh London hotel amid fears his office was bugged.

Full story with @rmendick here: telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/2…

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By September 2017, Trump had already grown frustrated with Robert Mueller’s probe into his campign’s alleged ties to Russia.

He dubbed it a “witch hunt” being led by “very bad and conflicted people”. (Mr Trump had already tried to remove Mueller by this point.)

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Yet in that month two Mueller officials came to London, with the consent of UK government figures, to interview Steele about his dossier.

They were both counter-intelligence officers. Steele knew one of them from previous work according to friends.

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They met in The Grosvenor Hotel, an upmarket hotel in central London. Mr Steele feared his office nearby was bugged, however low the risk.

A friend of Steele said: “This is London not Moscow. There’s a 10 per cent chance that it is bugged but that’s still 10 per cent.”

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They talked for all of first day + much of the second. For around 12 hours they grilled Steele, taking notes.

Why London? Steele had feared for his life during trips to Washington before the 2016 election, according to friends. He’s understood not to have been back since.

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The existence of meeting has been reported before but not the details or British approval.

UK Government’s willingness to allow the interview suggest they took a more serious view of Steele’s allegations than Trump.

[End]

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