Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham in a letter to the FBI Director US Deputy Attorney General accused Mr Steele of providing “false statements” about his sharing of information from the dossier with media outlets
The former British spy compiled a 35-page “dossier” of allegations which claimed financial and personal links between then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, his advisers and Russia.
Moscow and President Trump have repeatedly denied any collusion.
Mr Grassley and Mr Graham, who respectively chair the Senate Judiciary Committee and one of its subcommittees, have been supporters of a campaign by Trump and some Republicans to discredit Mr Steele’s dossier and cast doubt over the credibility of investigations into the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
In the letter released by the senators, the pair do not identify anyone to whom they believed Mr Steele lied nor do they identify any news outlet – however it makes reference to a “Top Secret” memo that they said relates to “certain communications between Christopher Steele and multiple US news outlets” regarding the “dossier”.
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Several news organisations, including Reuters, are understood to have briefed on Mr Steele’s dossier before the November 2016 election, but most decided not to report on the material at the time because it could not be verified.
Mr Steele had no immediate comment, Reuters reports.
Joshua Levy, a lawyer for Fusion GPS – a firm that is alleged to have assisted backers of Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in financing the “dossier” – believes senators’ letter is a bid undermine the special counsel investigation by the Department of Justice’s Robert Mueller.
Mr Levy said: “After a year of investigations into Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, the only person Republicans seek to accuse of wrongdoing is one who reported on these matters to law enforcement in the first place. We should all be skeptical in the extreme.”
Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal has also criticised the Republicans’ letter adding: ”This action was taken without any bipartisan cooperation, or even consultation.
“These vaguely stated, secret allegations seem designed more to distract attention from the priority issues for investigation, and discredit the FBI and other law enforcement.”
The Democratic senator said it was “indisputable fact” that the probe of Russian meddling in the election and any possible Trump campaign role “was triggered by information completely independent from the dossier”.
Congressional panels, including the Senate Intelligence Committee, have also been investigating the allegations into Russian meddling.
Two Trump campaign associates, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and aide George Papadopoulos have pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in Mueller’s probe.
The news come as a new explosive book about the US President by Michael Wolff has hit the shelves, sparking outrage from Trump who has threatened legal action.
Excerpts from ‘Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House’ reveal unflattering descriptions of Trump’s character and shocking claims about the President’s strategy during his electoral campaign.
Also according to the book – which Mr Wolff claims to be based on nearly 200 interviews with White House staff – Trump and his team had no intention of winning the election and had run simply as a branding exercise before accidentally winning against Democrat Hilary Clinton.
Following news of the book release, Donald Trump wrote on Twitter: “I authorised zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phoney book!
“I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist. Look at this guy’s past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!”