Mueller's Team Met with Russia Dossier Author
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. A CNN exclusive, Robert Mueller's probe into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign now includes a former British spy. His name is Christopher Steele. He is the man who authored that headline-making dossier that President Trump has slammed as fabricated. Crime and justice reporter Shimon Prokupecz has all the details here -- Shimon.</s>SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes, that's right. So investigators working with Special Counsel Bob Mueller met this summer with Christopher Steele. As you said, he's the former British Intelligence official, MI-6 officer, who put together what many now call the dossier which contains a series of memos detailing alleged Russian efforts to aid President Donald Trump's campaign. Steele was hired by a Washington firm, paid first by anti-Trump Republicans, and then Democrats. The special counsel is now working to determine whether any of the series of contacts between Trump campaign associates and suspected Russian operatives broke U.S. law. Now we don't know what information Steele may have provided to Mueller's team, but we know Steele previously provided the FBI information, some of the sources he used to put together his memos. We've also been told that while the intelligence community hasn't verified some of the most salacious details in the dossier parts of it have been corroborated. The president has taken issue with the intelligence community and Steele over the dossier, calling it fake news and tweets but despite the president's words congressional investigators still want to take a -- still want to talk to Steele. Take a listen.</s>SEN. RICHARD BURR (R), CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Though we have been incredibly enlightened at our ability to rebuild backwards the Steele dossier up to a certain day, getting past that point has been somewhat impossible.</s>PROKUPECZ: Yes. And part of that is because they really have not been able to talk to Steele. Yesterday they said that when Senator Burr did have that press conference earlier in the week he indicated that Burr somehow was not -- that Steele was somehow not cooperating with congressional investigators. But we're told Steele hasn't ruled out talking to the Senate intelligence committee, though there is no indication as to when that might take place -- John.</s>BERMAN: All right. Shimon Prokupecz, thanks so much. Now here to discuss CNN legal and national analyst Asha Rangappa, she's also a former FBI special agent. Asha, I find it fascinating that the day after we hear from Senate leaders that they can't talk to Christopher Steele, that they're dying to talk to this guy, they can't do it and it's holding them up, we magically learned that he has been interviewed by the special counsel, so what message is it fair to take from that?</s>ASHA RANGAPPA, CNN LEGAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, I think that we have to understand that these are two parallel investigations that are going on, with different goals. Mueller's goal is to follow every lead that he can in order to build a potentially criminal case against people who may have broken the law. And to that extent, he needs to make sure that the people who are providing him the information, the people who might testify, you know, that they're not going to -- what they're going to say doesn't get leaked in some other way that could compromise other witnesses. So there's just a little bit of attention there between those two investigations and I think right now, Mueller is essentially claiming kind of priority over this particular individual. It doesn't mean that maybe down the line he won't talk to congressional investigators.</s>BERMAN: So our reporting has been all along that the intelligence community believes that some of the information in the dossier was credible enough to determine further looks or merit, further looks, and has been corroborated. But the special counsel is going to have a different standard here by which to judge this. How will he be looking at this information?</s>RANGAPPA: Sure. So this is where we look at it from both a counterintelligence point of view and then a criminal point of view. So from a counterintelligence point of view it's important to remember that these so-called Steele dossier is actually raw intelligence. This is a former British spy who's basically talked to his sources, they've given him the information that they have, some of it may be true, some of it may not be true. It's raw intelligence. But for Mueller's purposes it's a great source of leads that they can then try to corroborate or verify by other means. That way he can maybe through other intelligence reporting that we have through the FBI, CIA, NSA, determine how much of it is true. Now on the criminal side, he has a little bit of a higher burden.</s>BERMAN: Yes.</s>RANGAPPA: If he wants to eventually use any of this information in a case, he can't bring the dossier into a courtroom. It's hearsay. It's a bunch of statements from third parties. So he has to actually has to find those very sources and get the information straight from them. So what's significant about the fact that he's working directly with Christopher Steele and as Shimon reported may actually be getting some of the identities of those sources means that he may be getting directly to the source of the information that is contained in the Steele dossier.</s>BERMAN: You know, it's so interesting, Watergate prosecutor Richard Ben-Veniste called it a road map, the dossier, a road map here, and based on what you're saying that's how the special counsel might use these interviews.</s>RANGAPPA: That's right. I mean if you're looking at a sprawling investigation and someone hands you, you know, a blueprint for how the crime was committed, any investigator would follow up on it. And if they found that it was a -- it led to a wall and nothing was true, so be it. But you follow every lead that you can and here there are a lot. Some will be corroborated, some may not be.</s>BERMAN: Right.</s>RANGAPPA: But Mueller's job is to figure out which ones those are.</s>BERMAN: And if you're Christopher Steele, you know, former MI6 British intelligence guy, who would you rather talk to here, the special counsel investigators or these congressional committees?</s>RANGAPPA: Well, I can't speak for Mr. Steele but if I were him, he is a former British spy. He was an MI6. I think that he has in that capacity worked with American intelligence before. He has undoubtedly worked with the CIA and potentially the FBI. So, you know, I think he knows that that is the -- Mueller's team is going to understand the intelligence intricacies and the need for sensitivity with regard to the information that he's provided. I don't know that he might have the same confidence in a congressional committee that may have other interests, political, you know, agendas potentially to give that information to them as well.</s>BERMAN: Sure. Intelligence, you know, intelligence people, often politicians, frankly just scare them. It's not a world they're particularly comfortable in. Asha Rangappa, great to have you with us. Interesting insight. Appreciate it.</s>RANGAPPA: Thank you so much, John.</s>BERMAN: All right. Very shortly Vice President Pence, he is going to be in the American Virgin Islands, so badly hit by Hurricane Maria. One Puerto Rican woman wants him to ignore the photo ops and go directly where the damage is.