Strzok said Steele dossier 'intended to influence' as well as inform, declassified texts reveal

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Former FBI agent Peter Strzok said he viewed the infamous Steele dossier as being "intended to influence" as well as to inform, according to a text he wrote in September 2016.

A trove of texts to and from Strzok, who was fired in 2018 following the revelation of anti-Trump texts while he was working for the special counsel’s office, was released this week by Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson. 

"Looking at the Yahoo article, I would definitely say at a minimum Steele’s reports should be viewed as intended to influence as well as to inform," Strzok wrote to another person whose name is redacted.

The texts were declassified as part of the Republicans’ investigation into the origins of the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe.

PETER STRZOK SAYS STEELE DOSSIER LED FBI ON 'WILD GOOSE CHASE' 

Then-FBI agent Peter Strzok arrives at a closed-door interview before the House Judiciary Committee June 27, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Getty Images)

The Yahoo story, which used former British spy Christopher Steele as an unnamed source, was headlined "U.S. intel officials probe ties between Trump adviser [Carter Page] and Kremlin."

FBI DECLASSIFIES SPREADSHEET USED TO TRY TO CORROBORATE STEELE DOSSIER 

Steele also met with other journalists before the FBI finally cut ties with him after he spoke to Mother Jones in October 2016, according to the National Review.

Some of the information compiled in the dossier has been discredited and an inspector general report late last year criticized the FBI for "omissions" and "inaccuracies" in its Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application as well as overstating Steele’s reliability.

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The dossier played a "crucial" role in the agency getting a FISA warrant to surveil former Trump aide Carter Page, according to the report by the inspector general.