Machete nut in Times Sq.
TWO REPUBLICAN senators have referred the former British spy behind the infamous Trump dossier to the Justice Department for possible criminal investigation.
Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa, head of the Judiciary Committee, and Lindsey Graham ofSouth Carolina believe the feds should look at whether Christopher Steele lied to authorities about contacts he made with reporters regarding information in the dossier.
The politicians sent their referral to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
It is the first known criminal referral to come out of the congressional probes investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The pair also sent a classified memo to the Justice Department about communications Steele allegedly had with reporters regarding the dossier.
“Maybe there is some innocent explanation for the inconsistencies we have seen, but it seems unlikely. In any event, it’s up to the Justice Department to figure that out,” Grassley said in a statement.
Steele was hired by political research firm Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on President Trump during the campaign.
The memos contained in the dossier outlined a spiderweb of a conspiracy between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign.
It also indicated that the Russians were actively working to hurt Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, and involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee. The documents detailed questionable business dealings between Trump associates and Moscow oligarchs and contained salacious allegations about Trump and Russian prostitutes.
Fusion GPS was initially hired by the conservative Washington Free Beacon and the research on Trump was later funded by the Clinton campaign.
The FBI found Steele’s work credible and considered hiring him as a paid source before his name and the dossier became public.
Grassley and Graham note in their statement that the referral “does not pertain to the veracity of claims contained in the dossier.”
Republicans have argued that the unverified claims in the dossier are what led to the federal investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Several recent reports, however, say that the probe started when foreign governments informed the feds about suspcious activity involving Russian operatives and people affiliated with the Trump campaign. Steele has spoken to special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Russian election interference. AN EMOTIONALLY disturbed man who once threatened President Trump and Hillary Clinton was nabbed in Times Square after cops spotted him with a machete, police sources said Friday.
William Sears, 26 - who was carrying five machetes - was taken into custody Thursday following a brief chase, sources said.
Sears, who is schizophrenic and was reported missing in September from a group home in Ohio, was previously on the radar of federal authorities for allegedly making threats during the United Nations General Assembly against Trump and Clinton, sources said.
Cops found Sears tapping a machete against a metal pole and on the sidewalk at W. 43rd St. and Broadway just before 5 p.m. Thursday, sources said.
When officers told him to drop the weapon he refused. One cop fired a Taser, which hit Sears in the back but had no effect, sources said.
Sears took off, ran uptown on Broadway and tossed away two machetes. Two blocks later, police caught up to him and handcuffed him.
Sources said Sears, who had three other machetes on him when he was arrested, was taken to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric observation.
“Bill is a very troubled young man. He's been in and out of hospitals,” dad Sam Sears, 58, told the Daily News.
Sears is charged with weapons possession, menacing and reckless endangerment. A 911 caller early Friday claimed suicide bombers were about to detonate bombs outside Trump Tower — an apparent prank call from a phone belonging to a man in Brooklyn, police sources said.