Rep. Jim Jordan speculated Tuesday a letter he sent to Attorney General William Barr may have prompted the two of special counsel Robert Mueller’s to begin departing from his team.
During an interview on Fox News, host Harris Faulkner asked if the Ohio Republican believed the Russia investigation was wrapping up, pointing to news in the past week that Andrew Weissmann and Zainab Ahmad were parting ways with Mueller.
Jordan pointed to a letter he and Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., sent to Barr earlier this month.
“The reason Ms. Ahmad might have left is the fact that the report is coming soon. We all kind of suspect that it is,” Jordan said. “It also might be a letter that Mr. Meadows and I sent to Attorney General Barr just 19 days ago, on March 1.”
[Byron York: With Mueller office emptying, dramatic predictions remain unfulfilled]
Rep. @Jim_Jordan speculates that a top lawyer on Mueller’s team left today because the investigation could soon end.
“It also might be a letter Mr. Meadows and I sent to AG Bill Barr just 19 days ago.”
The letter, he explained, points out a bias against Trump at the DOJ. pic.twitter.com/BximWrpZ3l
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 19, 2019
He then explained the contents of the letter, which noted DOJ official Bruce Ohr, who acted as an unofficial backchannel between the FBI and the author of the so-called Trump dossier, and his communications with the pair.
“We sent a letter pointing out that Andrew Weissmann, who is also leaving the special counsel, and Ms. Ahmad met with Bruce Ohr prior to the 2016 election,” Jordan said. “And Mr. Ohr conveyed to them that Christopher Steele, the author of the dossier, had talked to him and he was conveying that information to both of these individuals who went on Bob Mueller’s team that Mr. Steele was desperate to stop Trump. We pointed it out to Mr. Barr. Maybe that had to do with them leaving as well. I don’t know.”
The dossier, Jordan noted, was used in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant application process that led to the wiretapping of onetime Trump campaign aide Carter Page. GOP congressional investigators have determined that Steele’s bias against President Trump and his research’s Democratic benefactors were not conveyed to the FISA court.
Ahmad, the former assistant U.S. attorney of the Eastern District of New York who built a resume around prosecuting counterterrorism cases, was among the prosecutors handling former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s plea deal. Her departure was announced this week.
Weissmann’s departure was announced last week. He led the federal inquiry’s case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was sentenced to roughly seven and a half years in prison for conspiracy and fraud.
