Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Monday asked the Justice Department for documents regarding contact between former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr and the author of the so-called Trump dossier, ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.
“One set of those questions concern the role played by Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr in communicating with dossier author Christopher Steele and continuing to funnel information from Steele to the FBI after the FBI had terminated Steele as a source for his failure to abide by FBI instructions to avoid contact with the press about his work,” Grassley wrote in a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Monday.
In the letter, Grassley requested that DOJ provide materials pertaining to Ohr’s contact with Steele, including emails and text messages from personal and professional accounts, phone logs, and handwritten notes. Once the documents have been submitted, Grassley asked that Rosenstein’s staff arrange a transcribed interview with his committee.
The letter comes after Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released a memo earlier this year that claimed Ohr met Steele in 2016 and gave the Justice Department information about Steele’s political persuasions.
Steele was hired by Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm that also employed Ohr’s wife. It was revealed last year that over the summer of 2016, the firm was retained by lawyer Mark Elias, who represented the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Some aspects of the dossier — like communications between foreign nationals — have been confirmed by officials; however, other scandalous allegations tying Trump to Russia have not been verified.
