Jim Jordan hammers Democrats, says they sought foreign interference with Steele dossier

House Republicans used Thursday’s impeachment hearing to drum home a message that the Democrats sought foreign interference in the 2016 election by funding and distributing a Kremlin-sourced dossier.

Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, took witness Fiona Hill through a chronology, from opposition research firm Fusion GPS to dossier author Christopher Steele to the FBI, which put President Trump under investigation. The operation was funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

“The DNC hired [a law firm] who hired Fusion GPS who hired Christopher Steele who talk to Russians who gave him a bunch of dirt, a bunch of National Enquirer garbage, that he compiled in a dossier and our FBI used it,” Mr. Jordan said. “They used it as part of their investigation that they opened in July 2016 where they spied on to American citizens associated with the presidential campaign. My guess is that has probably never happened in American history.”

Ms. Hill, a Russia scholar who served on the National Security Council staff from early 2017 to spring 2019, testified she believes Mr. Steele, a former British intelligence officer, was “played” by the Kremlin with false anti-Trump information.

In the 2000s, Ms. Hill was the U.S. national intelligence officer on Russia. She worked with her counterpart at Britain’s MI6 — Mr. Steele.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who is leading the impeachment probe as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, initially backed the dossier in 2017. He quoted dossier allegations and praised Mr. Steele.

Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the committee’s ranking Republican, provided his own dossier narration. He called the dossier “a collection of false allegations attributed to Russian sources claiming that Donald Trump is a Russian agent.”

A Washington Times analysis showed the dossier contained 13 separate, unverified election conspiracy allegations against Mr. Trump and his associates.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller reported in March that he did not establish there was such a conspiracy. His 448-page report contained no information that Mr. Trump had any type of informant relationship with Moscow. No Trump ally was charged in a conspiracy.