Article snippet: Republicans have former President Obama’s State Department in their crosshairs as they question whether FBI and Justice Department investigations into MORE's orbit. Congressional Republicans have signaled that they are looking at whether the State Department, then run by MORE, passed along information from Clinton’s allies that may have been used by the FBI to launch an investigation into whether the Trump campaign had improper contacts with Russia. A highly redacted criminal referral from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman MORE offers new clues about the GOP probes. In the referral, Grassley writes that former British intelligence official Christopher Steele crafted a memo in addition to the infamous dossier of opposition research on Trump funded first by the conservative Washington Free Beacon website and then by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Grassley has referred Steele to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation, alleging that he lied to the FBI about his contacts with the media. The memo, dated Oct. 19, was given to Steele by a contact at the State Department and was based on information provided by “a friend of the Clintons,” Grassley said. The contents of the October memo are redacted and its allegations are unknown, but Grassley said he was troubled that people linked to Clinton were providing Steele with the information. “It is troubling enough that the Clinton campaign funded Mr. Steele’s wo... Link to the full article to read more