WASHINGTON—The investigation into claims of a secret communications channel between Donald Trump and Russia was not triggered by the Department of Justice (DOJ), despite the document memorializing the investigation stating it was, an FBI agent testified on May 24.
The electronic communications on the probe, dated Sept. 23, 2016, say the FBI received a referral of information from the DOJ.
“In that referral, the Department of Justice provided the FBI with a whitepaper that was produced by an anonymous third party,” the form says.
That was a “mistake in our paperwork,” Curtis Heide, a lead agent in the FBI’s Chicago office at the time, told the federal court in Washington on Tuesday….