A former British spy who prepared a dossier on unsubstantiated allegations of President Donald Trump's Russian activities was to be paid by the FBI to continue his work while he was getting money from Hillary Clinton supporters to dig deeper into Trump's past, according to news reports on Tuesday.
But the agency ultimately ended up not paying former MI6 agent Christopher Steele, The Washington Post reports, and the newspaper "was not able to determine how much the FBI intended to pay Steele had their relationship remained intact."
The Post cited "several people familiar with the arrangement."
The FBI was investigating Russian involvement in the presidential election at the time the deal was struck — and officials knew Steele had been gathering information on Trump for a Washington research firm that had been hired by Clinton operatives.
"The firm was due to stop paying Steele as Election Day approached, but Steele felt his work was not done," according to the Post.
The FBI knew of Steele, 53, because of his investigation into alleged corruption by FIFA, the world soccer association. He also has spent nearly two decades probing Russia for British intelligence agencies.
A spokesman for the FBI declined to comment Tuesday, the Post reports.
In London, Steele’s attorney did not respond to questions about the agreement.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer also declined to comment.
Steele began investigating Trump in June 2016 after working for another client that was developing a report on Russian involvement in political events in Europe, the Post reports.
He has gone underground since the unsubstantiated Trump dossier was reported in January after the FBI had presented it to Trump before his inauguration.
The intelligence agency had included the document in a report presented that week to former President Barack Obama on Russian-related hacking activities.
The dossier had been circulating throughout Washington for several months.
Trump has since slammed the dossier as "fake news" — and he has ripped Steele on Twitter as a "failed spy."
According to the Post, Steele was hired to work for a Washington research firm, Fusion GPS, that was providing information to a Democratic client who opposed Trump's nomination to the White House.
Fusion GPS declined to identify the client, the Post reports.
Steele's early work alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin was directing a plan to help Trump win the White House.
"Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years," Steele wrote in June, according to the report.
However, an intermediary supplied Steele's information to the FBI and other intelligence agencies in July after emails hacked from the Democratic National Convention were published by WikiLeaks.
Steele then "contacted a friend in the FBI to personally explain what he had found" after the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, the Post reports.
By the fall, Steele "became concerned that the U.S. government was not taking the information he had uncovered seriously enough," according to the report.
In October, Steele and the FBI reached an oral agreement: "He would continue his work looking at the Kremlin’s ties to Trump and receive compensation for his efforts," The Post reports.
The deal came as Steele feared that funds would dry up from the original source.
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