Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham have made the first criminal referral to the Justice Department in the congressional probes into Russian interference.
The referral: British spy, Christopher Steele, author of the dossier on President Donald Trump. The charge: Lying to federal authorities about his contacts with reporters about the contents of the dossier.
Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Graham sent a letter Thursday to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Chris Wray urging the Justice Department to investigate Steele.
"Based on the information contained therein, we are respectfully referring Mr. Steele to you for investigation of potential violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, for statements the Committee has reason to believe Mr. Steele made regarding his distribution of information contained," the senators wrote in the letter.
Lawmakers cannot prosecute criminal activity. But they generally refer any criminal violations they find to the Justice Department. The senators say part of the referral is classified.
The dossier was compiled during the campaign and contains allegations about Trump’s ties to Russia. It was partially paid for by Democrats.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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