DOJ official Bruce Ohr, former British spy Christopher Steele
John Solomon strikes again!
New emails obtained by Congress show Christopher Steele funneled information to the FBI through top DOJ official Bruce Ohr after the FBI ‘terminated’ Christopher Steele in November of 2016.
Chairman Meadows tweeted: Critical development: NEW emails obtained by Congress show Chris Steele was secretly funneling information to the FBI in 2017 through senior DOJ official, Bruce Ohr, even after the FBI claimed Steele was ‘terminated’ for leaking to the media in November 2016
Critical development: NEW emails obtained by Congress show Chris Steele was secretly funneling information to the FBI in 2017 through senior DOJ official, Bruce Ohr, even after the FBI claimed Steele was ‘terminated’ for leaking to the media in November 2016
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) August 8, 2018
Investigative reporter John Solomon released a report detailing some of the text exchanges between Bruce Ohr and Christopher Steele.
Although memos show the FBI specifically instructed Steele he could no longer “operate to obtain any intelligence whatsoever on behalf of the FBI,” Bruce Ohr continued to be the FBI’s back-channel to the former British spy.
Text messages also reveal Bruce Ohr, his wife Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele met on July 30th, 2016–just one day before the FBI opened ‘Crossfire Hurricane.’
John Solomon reports:
Yet, Steele asked Ohr in the 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.
FBI officials now admit they continued to receive information from Steele through Ohr, identifying more than a half-dozen times its agents interviewed Ohr in late 2016 and 2017, to learn what Steele was saying.
That continued reliance on Steele after his termination is certain to raise interest in Congress about whether the FBI broke its own rules.
But the memos also raise questions about Ohr’s and the Justice Department’s roles in the origins of building a counterintelligence case against the Republican presidential nominee, based heavily on opposition research funded by his rival’s campaign, the DNC, and the DNC’s main law firm, Perkins Coie.
Some of the more tantalizing Ohr contacts occurred in the days when Steele made his first contacts with the FBI in summer 2016 about the Russia matter.
“There is something separate I wanted to discuss with you informally and separately. It concerns our favourite (sic) business tycoon!” Steele wrote Ohr on July 1, 2016, in an apparent reference to Trump.
That overture came just four days before Steele walked into the FBI office in Rome with still-unproven allegations that Trump had an improper relationship with Russia, including possible efforts to hijack the presidential election.
Ohr scheduled a call with Steele over Skype a few days later. But then the two men met in Washington on July 30, 2016, at the Mayflower Hotel.
Ohr brought his wife, Nellie, who was working at Fusion GPS on the Trump-Russia research project.
“Great to see you and Nellie this morning Bruce,” Steele wrote shortly after their breakfast meeting. “Let’s keep in touch on the substantive issues/s (sic). Glenn is happy to speak to you on this if it would help.”
John Solomon spoke with FOX News’ Sean Hannity Tuesday evening and said, “the real conspiracy that we’re all gonna be looking at in a month from now will be the one inside the Justice Department to defraud the FISC court…I believe that’s where this goes,” Solomon told Hannity.
Hannity asked John Solomon to elaborate on his statement about the DOJ defrauding the FISA court.
“I think for sure the FBI was intentionally keeping this information–this contact between Ohr as a go-between, the flaws in the case-the stuff Devin Nunes told you last night–they were keeping, omitting exculpatory information and hiding their backchannel to the Clinton campaign and that is going to be a real problem for the FBI when this is all done,” Solomon said as Chairman Meadows chimed in, “Without a doubt–AGREE.”
VIDEO:
REWIND- Monday evening Nunes told the Hannity to pay close attention to Bruce Ohr.
“Bruce Ohr is going to become more and more important in this investigation and I think people should pay close attention to it,” Nunes said.
Lawmakers are demanding the declassification of the FBI’s 302 notes on 12 interviews they conducted with twice-demoted DOJ official Bruce Ohr between December 2016 – May 2017.
Also–you heard it here at TGP first—Look for President Trump to declassify the June 2017 Carter Page FISA renewal this month, says investigative reporter, Paul Sperry.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and then-Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe both signed offon the June 2017 Carter Page FISA renewal–things could get interesting!
Look this month for POTUS to declassify …
— 20 redacted pages of June 2017 FISA renewal
… and possibly …
— 63 pages of emails and notes b/t Ohr & Steele
— FD-302 summaries of 12 FBI interviews w/ Ohr re Steele
… and watch Dems and media toadies become apoplectic
— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) August 5, 2018
