Politically Short

A short excerpt from a new article posted at The Hill by John Solomon:

Fusion GPS’s work and its involvement with several FBI officials have been well reported. But a close review of new documents shows just how closely Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, who reported to Obama-era Deputy AG Sally Yates, maintained contact with Fusion — and, in particular, its primary source, former British spy Christopher Steele — before, during and after the election.

Steele asked Ohr in a Jan. 31 text exchange if he could continue to help feed information to the FBI: “Just want to check you are OK, still in the situ and able to help locally as discussed, along with your Bureau colleagues.”

“I’m still here and able to help as discussed,” Ohr texted back. “I’ll let you know if that changes.”

Steele replied, “If you end up out though, I really need another (bureau?) contact point/number who is briefed. We can’t allow our guy to be forced to go back home. It would be disastrous.” Investigators are trying to determine who Steele was referring to.

Agents made a record of each time Ohr gave the bureau information from Steele. Those records are in the form of so-called 302 reports, in which the FBI agents write up notes of interviews during an investigation. As Byron York of the Washington Examiner explained, “there are a dozen 302 reports on FBI post-election interviews of Ohr. The first was Nov. 22, 2016. After that, the FBI interviewed Ohr on Dec. 5; Dec. 12; Dec. 20; Jan. 23, 2017; Jan. 25; Jan. 27; Feb. 6; Feb. 14; May 8; May 12; and May 15. The dates, previously unreported publicly, were included in a July letter from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to the FBI and Justice Department.”

Grassley’s letter also made note of the fact that numerous FD-302s demonstrated that Bruce Ohr continued to pass along allegations from Steele to the FBI after the FBI suspended its relationship with Steele for unauthorized contact with the media. Ohr funneled allegations from Fusion GPS & Steele to FBI.

Looking at all this new information can be daunting but remember the big picture: The FBI used false information from Steele to get a warrant to spy on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page. Then they terminate Steele as a source for leaking to the media. But in fact they continue to use him as a source by using a top ranking DOJ official as a cutout who meets with Steele repeatedly and reports his information back to the FBI. The official’s wife, Nellie Ohr meanwhile, worked with Steele on the dossier project. So, the FBI tells the FISA court in its renewal applications that it has terminated Steele but it doesn’t tell the court that they’re actually still using him as a source via Ohr. If what Ohr did was ok, why was he demoted twice? Moreover, if he wasn’t supposed to be doing what he did, why hasn’t he been fired yet?

Lastly, do not forget that Bruce Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, worked for Fusion GPS. As Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller highlighted, “the Ohrs’ connection to the dossier was kept secret for nearly a year after the dossier’s publication. Bruce Ohr also failed to disclose Nellie’s work for Fusion on his annual financial disclosure forms.”

Wonder why that is?