Justice Department official Bruce Ohr told lawmakers Tuesday that he had several contacts in the Justice Department and FBI with whom he discussed the anti-Trump dossier and had given some related research.
Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, a member of the Judiciary Committee told Fox News late Tuesday that Ohr gave lawmakers “a list of half a dozen” senior FBI and DOJ officials knew about his involvement with ex-British spy Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier that contained unverified claims about Trump’s ties to Russia.
In a tweet Wednesday, he further explained that the “operational roles” of Ohr and his wife Nellie, who worked as a contractor for the firm that commissioned the dossier, and their “financial gain from it” were known to “at least” half a dozen senior FBI and DOJ officials prior to the first Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application to spy on onetime Trump campaign aide Carter Page, who has suspicious ties to Russia, and that these details were “never disclosed.”
Follow-up reports have revealed the identities of at least some of these officials.
Sources told Fox News that Ohr’s contacts included Peter Strzok, the former FBI agent who acknowledged meeting with Ohr in congressional testimony last month. Strzok once played a leading role in Mueller’s inquiry and was recently fired from the bureau over anti-Trump text messages he sent a colleague with whom he was having an affair.
Fox News also reported that Ohr claimed to have met with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, Strzok’s onetime mistress, former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and Joe Pientka, an FBI agent who reportedly interviewed former national security adviser Michael Flynn with Strzok.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., noted that Ohr additionally mentioned Andrew Weissmann, who was the chief of the DOJ’s criminal fraud division, according to the Washington Post. Fox News’ Catherine Herridge reported Thursday that Weissmann was “kept in the loop” about the dossier, Steele, and Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commission the dossier.
During his testimony in a closed-door testimony before the joint task force of the Judiciary and Oversight committees, Ratcliffe claims Ohr said at least one of these officials signed off on a FISA warrant application seeking the authority to spy on Page. To this individual, Ratcliffe advised: “I would retain a really good lawyer.”
Of the officials who have been identified in reports, McCabe was the only one known to have signed off one of them.
President Trump and his Republican allies have complained the dossier, which was used in the FISA application process along with other information, was not credible. While Meadows stressed Ohr said he informed DOJ and FBI officials about witness bias and hearsay in the dossier, people familiar with Ohr’s testimony who spoke with the Post said this “bias” resulted from concerns that Trump had been compromised by the Russians.
The two top Democrats on the judiciary and oversight panels, Reps. Jerrold Nadler, N.Y., and Elijah Cummings, Md., whose staff attended the Ohr meeting, said his testimony did not “cast doubt on the credibility of the dossier.”
They also suggested that because much of Ohr’s career was focused on combating Russian criminal activity, Trump and his allies are “focusing their energies on trying to fire Mr. Ohr without just cause.”
Trump tweeted Wednesday, asking why Ohr had yet to be fired. House Republicans investigating Ohr for his role in FBI obtaining the dossier would like to see him fired, but aides close to the lawmakers’ thinking say they are are split as to whether Trump should take action before Ohr testifies publicly.
Ohr, formerly the associate deputy attorney general, was demoted after it came to light he met with Steele and Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson. He still has a role in the DOJ working in the Organized Crime Task Force.
