U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, released a 268-page transcript Friday of a deposition Justice Department official Bruce Ohr gave to Congress back in August.
Taking to the House floor, Collins said his patience with the DOJ “has grown thin.”
“People anticipate the Mueller report soon,” Collins said. “Will he find any so-called ‘collusion’? Or was the only ‘collusion’ among agency personnel who hated the president and started this investigation? Our interview transcripts were pertinent to a congressional investigation, but the 115th Congress ended, the investigation was closed, and copies were shared with certain members of Congress.”
This morning, I requested the link https://t.co/yA4Ig4L8at be placed in the record so the American people can review the transcript of Bruce Ohr’s interview. pic.twitter.com/wz2A2h78Na
— Doug Collins (@RepDougCollins) March 8, 2019
Ohr served as a back channel between the FBI and Christopher Steele, the former British spy who produced the unverified Trump dossier alleging collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, and his wife, Nellie, worked as a contractor for Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that hired Steele, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
In the deposition, Ohr said he spoke with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson in August 2016, but Simpson testified that he never spoke to anyone at the FBI or DOJ about Steele or his dossier “during the election,” as was noted by Sean Davis, co-founder of the web magazine The Federalist.
As Davis surmised, “Somebody is lying.”
“On the left is Glenn Simpson’s sworn testimony that he never spoke to anyone at the FBI about Christopher Steele or his dossier ‘during the election.’ On the right is Bruce Ohr’s sworn testimony that he spoke w/ Simpson in “August of 2016″ about Steele. Somebody is lying,” he tweeted.
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1104037072619401217
Davis offered another observation about loyalties based on the released documents.
“Bruce Ohr testified to the House last August that Christopher Steele was being simultaneously paid by both the FBI and Fusion GPS,” he tweeted. “We know Steele was also working for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who was using Steele to get the FBI to go after Manafort, an old enemy.”
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1104032519022886913
Ohr’s comments came during an exchange with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, according to the DCNF — the transcripts released Friday confirmed the news outlet’s reporting that cited anonymous sources.
“I think you said earlier today sometime this morning that you met with Glenn Simpson twice in person,” Jordan reportedly said. “But you met in person in 2016, is that right?”
“That is my recollection,” Ohr said.
“Once in August and once in December?” Jordan asked.
“Yes,” said Ohr.
As seen above, Simpson told House investigators in November 2017 he had contact with Ohr only after the 2016 election.
The revelation also undercuts a claim by House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, D-Calif, who claimed in a Feb 2018 memo Ohr did not tell the FBI about his contacts with Steele until after the election.
Judicial Watch announced Thursday that it received 339 pages of heavily redacted records from the Justice Department revealing that Ohr remained in regular contact with Steele after Steele was terminated by the FBI in November 2016.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton characterized the sordid affair as “insider corruption” that has compromised special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
“These smoking gun documents show that Christopher Steele, a Hillary Clinton operative and anti-Trump foreign national, secretly worked hand-in-glove with the Justice Department on its illicit targeting of President Trump,” Fitton said.
“These documents leave no doubt that for more than a year after the FBI fired Christopher Steele for leaking, and for some 10 months after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, Bruce Ohr continued to act as a go-between for Steele with the FBI and Justice Department,” he continued. “The anti-Trump Russia investigation, now run by Robert Mueller, has been thoroughly compromised by this insider corruption.”
The reaction online shows that social media users are cynical about ever seeing real justice in what has every appearance of being a set up of President Trump.
Here’s a sampling of responses from Twitter:
The Russians are laughing at us.
The Democrat led #WitchHunt is aiding in the Russian objective to sow discourse & choas in our system more than they could have ever hoped to do themselves.
— Jo Michigan (@JoPreibus) March 8, 2019
Hope AG Barr is following you. Otherwise he might never know or find out.
— Trump2020 (@Trump2005747648) March 8, 2019
He didn’t understand the question…
— Elizabeth Garcia (@freddog10) March 8, 2019
Amazing how nothing is being done. Even when everything was under Republican control, nothing was done. The Justice department still can do something but isn’t… Sad….
— TheConservativeTrucker (@TheConsTrucker) March 8, 2019
Now let’s see if anything is ever done about it. Thus far the only action we’ve seen on this entire lying mess remains 100% one-sided.
[Follows appreciated!]
— ?????????? (@Chop0Matic) March 8, 2019
https://twitter.com/RealMoneyMonkey/status/1104040067666976770
Why do honest people keep trying to confuse us with facts? IMPEACH 45!
— MaxiMuddy Waters (@maddmaxine1) March 8, 2019
I guess we know who paid Steele more: when Fusion GPS, under pressure from the @HillaryClinton campaign, pressured Steele to get more media exposure, he chose the #DNC over the #FBI. https://t.co/SA7rbf0KOj
— Philip Morrill (@PHMorrill) March 8, 2019
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