Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has issued a subpoena to a former State Department official linked to a controversial research dossier authored by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, which played a key role in the FBIs probe into debunked allegations of a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to swing the 2016 election.
Johnson, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, subpoenaed Jonathan Winer after warning earlier this month he would seek to compel the former State Department employees to testify as part of the committees probe into the governments handling of the investigation into Russian election meddling, the Washington Examiner has learned.
“Among other issues, Mr. Winers admitted destruction of his records related to his contacts with Christopher Steele is concerning and deserves an explanation,” Johnson told The Epoch Times in an earlier emailed statement.
According to a Senate Intelligence Committee report released this week, Winer destroyed records that Steele sent him.
“So, I destroyed them, and I basically destroyed all the correspondence I had with him,” Winer was quoted in the report as saying about information that was on his personal devices, adding as justification that Steele wanted to keep his network of contacts secret from the Russian intelligence services.
Winer, who was Steeles contact at the State Department, arranged a meeting for Steele in October 2016 with another State Department official regarding the former spys research on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“After Steeles memos were published in the press in January 2017, Steele asked Winer to make note of having them, then either destroy all the earlier reports Steele had sent the Department of State or return them to Steele, out of concern that someone would be able to reconstruct his source network,” the Senate report says.
News of Johnsons subpoena comes as the Republican senator has faced criticism for not issuing subpoenas in the committees review of the probe into the Trump campaign. Johnson received the ability to issue subpoenas to persons of interest in the Trump-Russia probe in June, after the committee voted along party lines in June to grant him this power. Johnson issued his first subpoena on Aug. 10 to the FBI, requesting records related to the probe into the Trump campaign.
The probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election morphed into an investigation into the Trump campaign, with the chief accusation being that members of the campaign colluded with Russian operatives to influence the election. Multiple iRead More From Source
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