DOJ releases FBI documents on Bruce Ohr interviews about Trump dossier author Christopher Steele
by Jerry Dunleavy
& Daniel Chaitin
| August 08, 2019 11:34 PM
The Justice Department released the heavily redacted notes from a dozen FBI interviews with Bruce Ohr, the DOJ official who met with dossier author Christopher Steele numerous times, including after the bureau cut the former MI6 agent off as a source because of improper leaks to the media.
Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., obtained 34 pages of the FBI's notes, known as “302s," as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit after the agency declined to voluntarily hand over the requested materials. In court filings last week, DOJ attorneys said the department “decided to release the requested records in part to plaintiff.â€
Ohr, who worked with Steele for years and acted as an unofficial conduit between Steele and the bureau during the Trump-Russia investigation, had a dozen such interviews with the FBI. One of them took place in November 2016, three in December 2016, three in January 2017, two in February 2017, and three in May 2017. Ohr was the fourth-ranking official at the DOJ until he was demoted after it came to light that he met with Steele and Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which commissioned Steele's work. Ohr’s wife Nellie also worked for Fusion GPS in 2016.
Fusion GPS was hired by Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee, and the company then hired Steele, who allegedly reached out to sources in Russia to put together his salacious and unverified dossier. That dossier was used extensively in four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant applications and renewals targeting Trump associate Carter Page, who was never charged with any wrongdoing.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/doj-releases-fbi-documents-on-bruce-ohr-interviews-about-trump-dossier-author-christopher-steele
