Bruce Ohr to face questions from Senate on Fusion GPS ties
Former associate deputy attorney general to testify about undisclosed meetings he had with the company that commissioned the anti-Trump dossier; Kevin Corke reports.
Bruce Ohr, the former associate deputy attorney general who was demoted at the Justice Department in the wake of revelations about undisclosed meetings he had with officials from Fusion GPS, is expected on Monday to testify in a closed-door hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, two sources told Fox News.
Fusion GPS is the company that commissioned the anti-Trump dossier containing salacious allegations about then-candidate Donald Trump.
Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, worked at Fusion GPS during the summer, specifically on Trump related issues.
Together, the Fusion connections for Mr. and Mrs. Ohr have raised Republican concerns about objectivity at the Justice Department, and even spurred a call from Trump’s outside counsel for a separate special prosecutor.
Fox News first reported last week that Bruce Ohr had been demoted.
Evidence collected by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), chaired by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., indicates that Ohr met during the 2016 campaign with Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the “dossier.”
Republican lawmakers have spent the better part of this year investigating whether the dossier, which was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, served as the basis for the Justice Department and the FBI to obtain FISA surveillance last year on a Trump campaign adviser named Carter Page.
On Tuesday, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow called for the appointment of a separate special prosecutor to look into potential conflicts of interest involving Justice Department and FBI officials.
A group of House Republicans for months has called for the appointment of a second special counsel to probe certain Obama and Clinton-related controversies, something Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reviewing.
When asked Tuesday about the Sekulow call, Sessions noted he’s already ordered that review following the prior call from members of Congress.
“I’ve put a senior attorney, with the resources he may need, to review cases in our office and make a recommendation to me ... if things aren’t being pursued that need to be pursued, if cases may need more resources to complete in a proper manner, and to recommend to me if the standards for a special counsel are met,” he said, calling that the “appropriate” course.