GOP Rep. Jordan demands the FBI answer for informants who provided 'bogus information'

Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan has written to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding that he account for the bureau's use of "secret informants" that provided "bogus information."

In a Wednesday letter, Jordan informed Wray that lawmakers are "conducting oversight of the FBI's management of its Confidential Human Source (CHS) program and how the FBI handles secret informants."

The Ohio lawmaker further cited bureau regulations, asserting that the bureau "to the extent practicable, ensure that the information collected from every CHS is accurate and current, and not given to the FBI in an effort to distract, mislead, or misdirect FBI organizational or governmental efforts."

He cited the bureau's use of former British agent Christopher Steele and Russian analyst Igor Danchenko as confidential informants as motivation for the inquiry. Steele authored a now thoroughly discredited dossier which included salacious accusations against former President Donald Trump and formed the basis of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. Danchenko meanwhile, was his "primary sub-source."

Danchenko faced charges for lying to the FBI in special counsel John Durham's probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia hoax, but a jury acquitted him on all counts. Jordan, however, pointed to trial testimony that revealed he was a paid FBI source and that the bureau had previously conducted a counterintelligence investigation into him.

"In both the Steele and Danchenko matters, publicly available information suggests that the FBI either ignored red flags about the informant's reliability or affirmatively misrepresented his suitability," Jordan wrote to Wray.

He then demanded that the FBI director provide an explanation of the bureau's current policies for handling CHSs, detailed accounting of the money paid to them from fiscal year 2012 to the present, and information on the number of active CHSs.

Jordan further demanded documents relating to the FBI counterintelligence investigation of Danchenko and an update on the FBI's efforts to implement previous Office of the Inspector General recommendations to improve the CHS program.

The Republican set the deadline at Dec. 14, 2022.