Two Republican senators on Friday referred criminal charges for Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer who authored a controversial dossier about President Trump's ties to Russia. Sens. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.), top members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told the Department of Justice that "they had reason to believe that [Steele] lied to federal authorities about his contacts with reporters regarding information in the dossier," The New York Times reports.
The Times notes that Grassley and Graham's decision to "single out the former intelligence officer behind the dossier — and not anyone who may have taken part in the Russian interference — was certain to infuriate Democrats." The senators allege that Steele lied to the FBI when discussing the contents of the dossier — which includes salacious but unconfirmed details about Trump's alleged conduct in Moscow that would subject him to blackmail by the Kremlin — and when revealing how he disseminated the information to American news outlets.
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