Posted on 10/12/2018 6:37:35 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) requested Friday that the FBI release materials related to the bureau's interactions with Department of Justice (DOJ) official Bruce Ohr and former DOJ lawyer Michael Sussmann.
Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent a letter to FBI director Christopher Wray asking him to share information on the FBI's interactions with both individuals.
In his letter, which is co-signed by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Attorney General Jeff Sessions and DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz, Johnson cites "public reports," including a report from The Hill, that former FBI General Counsel James Baker met with Sussmann, now an attorney with Perkins Coie. Perkins Coie retained research firm Fusion GPS in 2016 to research allegations that President Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
"Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele — author of the Steele dossier — and Mr. Sussmann allegedly provided the FBI with information 'related to Russian interference in the election, hacking and possible Trump connections,'" the letter reads.
"According to separate reporting, the FBI met at least 12 times with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, who 'began feeding information to the FBI from dossier author Christopher Steele in late 2016.' To better understand the FBI’s interactions with these two individuals, I request that you produce all communications and documents, including the FD-302s, memorializing the FBI’s communications with Michael Sussmann and Bruce Ohr," Johnson added.
Ohr became the target of intense scrutiny by conservatives earlier this year who argued that Ohr's ties to Fusion GPS through his wife, Nellie Ohr, and his contacts with former British spy, Christopher Steele, were evidence that there is bias against Trump within the DOJ.
Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS, hired Steele to compile the so-called "Steele dossier," which contains a series of salacious allegations about Trump’s ties to Russia. The dossier was paid for, in part, by Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
Trump, in August, said he would declassify a series of sensitive documents related to special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow, including FBI reports of interviews with Bruce Ohr. Later that week he delayed the release of those documents, saying "key allies" raised concerns.
Bruce Ohr and Baker met with congressional investigators last month. Nellie Ohr is set to do so on Oct. 19.
Lawyers for Simpson told the head of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday that his client will “invoke his constitutional rights not to testify,” despite a Republican-issued subpoena seeking to compel him to give a confidential deposition.
The attorneys blasted the committee's inquiry as part of a partisan probe aimed at undermining Mueller's investigation.
“The obvious — and at times explicitly stated — goal of this Committee is to discredit and otherwise damage witnesses to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, all as part of an effort to protect a President who has sought to placate and curry favor with a hostile foreign power and who demands that the Justice Department stop investigating him,” they wrote.
He compiled the dossier and he distributed it.
Steele was there from the beginning. He knows all the secrets and he know all the answers.
No one seems to care.
Interesting.
That's a Motley cru..
Interesting.
You can say that again.
Simpson may want to take the 5th but they should still make him come before the committee and do so in person. Then Republicans can make public statements about him and create more of the record for going forward. Also, letting more Democraps go on the record with their pathetic evasions and lies will be useful as well.
Never get the info. The communists Democrats are in control and will prevent releasing.
Why did Sessions co-sign the senator’s letter? As AG, he has he power to order the FBI to cooperate with the request of Congress for information/evidence. If issuing such an order would violate his recusal from anything having to do with the Russian collusion investigation, doesn’t his signing the letter also violate his recusal?
Good question - it illustrates the massive ignorance about who actually runs the show.
We can assume that the Deep State has seized as many critical parts in the machinery of government as possible. And we need to identify just what those parts are.
Keebler elf
Mr. Magoo
Granny from Beverly Hillbilllies
Your question is reasonable. On the face of it, he should either force compliance or refrain from signing.
The sophistic implication of your gratuitous, obnoxious posts is that there could not possibly any legitimate criticism of Jefferson Sessions as Attorney General.
(Have you ever studied argument and debate, or philosophy of logic?)
I have yet to see any of the Sessions Sycophants (see how it works in reverse?) address the attack of his DOJ upon the just ruling by Judge Navarro in throwing out the egregiously unlawful prosecution of American citizen, Cliven Bundy and others - an issue far removed from the so-called Russian Collusion investigation.
Be glad you are not Flynn, Manafort, Caputo, or Bundy. Whatever his motive(s), Sessions is obviously content to tolerate the destruction of citizens’ lives in violation of due process and rule of law, to further his agenda.
Whether the man is seeking to disempower the Deep State or not (I believe not, since he has been part of the S.E.S. since 1988), he is essentially an Institutionalist, not a Constitutionalist.
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