Members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team recently traveled to Europe to interview ex-British spy Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier containing allegations about President Trump and his ties to Russia, at least two people familiar with the interview told The Associated Press and CNN.
Before the election, a private American research firm hired Steele to investigate Trump's links to Russia, and he ultimately put together a 35-page dossier that contained financial and personal bombshells about Trump. The dossier was given to the FBI last year, and former FBI Director James Comey privately briefed Trump about its existence. The FBI and CIA take the dossier's claims more seriously than they publicly acknowledge, CNN says, and some parts have been corroborated. Trump has called the dossier "phony stuff." Mueller is in the middle of investigating possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials before the election.