There will be no “public circus” when top Obama-era Justice Department official Bruce Ohr speaks to lawmakers later this month, said House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., on Monday.
Ohr, who fed the FBI information from ex-British spy Christopher Steele, the author of the Trump dossier, even after Steele was cut as a source for providing confidential information to the media, is set to testify before members of the Oversight and Judiciary Committees on Aug. 28.
Ohr will have to “answer why he had 60+ contacts with dossier author, Chris Steele, as far back as January 2016. He owes the American public the full truth,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., in revealing that the interview would be taking place.
Alluding to past instances where public testimony has led to grandstanding by lawmakers, Gowdy confirmed this interview will be done behind closed doors.
“I’m going to come back to Washington,” Gowdy said on Fox News. “I will leave my beloved South Carolina and I will go back and I’m sure others will too. We are going to be back and we are going to interview Bruce or not in a public circus setting but any deposition with no time limits and we are going to get to the bottom of what he did, why he did it, who he did it in concert with, whether he had the permission of the supervisors at the Department of Justice.”
Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said he used to do the work Ohr does now. “It is unbelievable that a prosecutor would insert himself into an ongoing investigation for which he had nothing to do,” he added.
Ohr is a former associate deputy attorney general. He was demoted after it came to light he met with Steele and Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson but kept his role as Organized Crime Task Force director at the Justice Department.
His wife, Nellie Ohr, was employed by Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commissioned the dossier in an effort that was funded in part by Democrats, to assist in the cultivation of research on then-candidate Donald Trump.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said last week that Bruce Ohr will become “more and more important” as GOP lawmakers look for evidence of power abuse and corruption at the highest levels of the Obama administration.
The Ohr interview, which will happen amid an August recess, comes a month after now-ex FBI agent Peter Strzok testified before lawmakers in a public setting. Strzok, who it was announced on Monday was fired by the FBI, has come under fire for text messages he exchanged with a fellow FBI employee with whom he was having an affair that were critical of President Trump.
During his testimony, at least one Republican, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, was condemned by figures on both sides of the aisle for bringing up Strzok’s personal life.
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to say that Bruce Ohr has kept his job as Organized Crime Task Force director. He was not demoted to that role when he lost his post as associate deputy attorney general.
