RING OF TRUTH

James Comey on ‘20/20’: Steele Dossier Source Was ‘Credible’

Report was “consistent with the other information we’d gathered during the intelligence investigation.”

In an interview Sunday night on 20/20, ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos asked former FBI Director James Comey what he thought of the Steele dossier after his first briefing on it in August 2015. “At its core,” Comey said, the report from former British spy Christopher Steele “was consistent with the other information we’d gathered during the intelligence investigation.” Comey said he already knew the allegations at the heart of the dossier—that Russia was interfering in the 2016 presidential election to sully American democracy, hurt Hillary Clinton, and help elect Donald Trump—were true from “totally separate information.” He also said the dossier was coming “from a credible source, someone with a track record, someone who was a credible and respected member of an allied intelligence service during his career.” Asked whether he thought the dossier itself was credible, Comey repeated that he thought the source was credible and said that meant “we should try and replicate that work to see if we can develop the same sources.”