Atlantic: Nunes Traveled to London to Dig Up Dirt on British Spy Steele

House Intelligence Committee head Rep. Devin Nunes reportedly traveled to London earlier this month to dig up new information about the ex-British spy who compiled an unverified dossier on President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.

But British intelligence agencies weren’t interested, The Atlantic reported.

Citing two unnamed sources, The Atlantic reported that the California Republican was investigating, among other things, Christopher Steele’s own service record and whether British authorities had known about his repeated contact with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.

Ohr’s wife works for the opposition-research firm Fusion GPS, which hired Steele to research Trump’s Russia ties.

Nunes requested meetings with the heads of three different British agencies, MI5, MI6, and the Government Communications Headquarters, The Atlantic reported.

“It is normal for U.K. intelligence agencies to have meetings with the chairman and members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,” an unnamed U.K. security official told the news outlet.

But he wound up only meeting with the U.K.’s deputy national-security adviser, Madeleine Alessandri. Officials at MI6, MI5, and GCHQ were wary that Nunes was “trying to stir up a controversy,” an unnamed source told The Atlantic.

Neither Nunes, nor press offices for MI5 and MI6 returned requests for comment and GCHQ declined to comment, The Atlantic reported.

Nunes and other Trump supporters have argued the Steele dossier was wrongly used by the FBI and the Department of Justice to obtain warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court to spy on Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign.

Nunes' Democratic opponent, Andrew Janz, issued a statement Tuesday denouncing the London trip and questioning whether it was paid for by taxpayers, USA Today reported.

“I’m so disappointed but also not surprised in our Congressman," Janz said. "He did not have time to hold a town hall, debate me, check in or issue a statement on the thousands of California firefighters risking their lives in August, but he did have time to sneak around London and be denied meetings by British Intelligence."

Nunes sent two committee staffers to London last year in an unsuccessful quest to talk to Steele, USA Today reported.

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