Election security

FBI 'offered British spy $50,000 to corroborate his claims in the dirty dossier on Trump - which he never did'

Claims have resurfaced that the FBI offered the British spy behind the 'golden showers' dirty dossier $50,000 to corroborate his claims about now-President Donald Trump.

'I believe, just from examining the public sources, that the FBI offered Christopher Steele $50,000 if he could corroborate the dossier. He either couldn't, didn't, wouldn't, and they didn't pay him the money,' news analyst Andrew Napolitano told Stuart Varney on Fox Business Monday.

Former MI6 agent Steele's dossier claims the Russians possess compromising information that could be used to blackmail Trump, and alleges the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.

Napolitano appears to be basing his claim on an April report from the New York Times, which cited two sources claiming that an FBI agent met Steele in Rome in October of 2016, just weeks before the presidential election. 

The agent offered Steele $50,000 if he could get 'solid corroboration of his reports', which the FBI ultimately never paid out, the report said.