House Panel Is Said to Question Podesta on Trump Dossier Links

(Bloomberg) -- The House Intelligence Committee met again behind closed doors Monday with John Podesta, the 2016 campaign chairman for Hillary Clinton, in his second appearance before the panel looking into Russian election-meddling, according to two people familiar with the matter.

This time, questions to Podesta by Republicans focused on recently disclosed ties between Clinton's campaign and an opposition-research dossier about Trump that was put together during the presidential race, according to the two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He also was questioned by the panel in late June.

The dossier, which alleged ties between Trump and Russia and also included salacious allegations about Trump, was partly paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign through a law firm. Officials familiar with the committee questioning of Podesta on Monday said lawmakers focused on interactions with Fusion GPS, the firm that assembled the dossier.

Representative Devin Nunes and other committee Republicans say they want to investigate whether the Justice Department and FBI may have improperly relied on the dossier -- without independently confirming information in it -- to kick-start the federal investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Representative Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the panel, declined to discuss witness testimony Monday evening.

To contact the reporter on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo

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