Notes from a 2016 conversation between the FBI and former Deputy Associate Attorney General Bruce Ohr have been released. Known as Form 302’s, they summarize what was said during the interview.
That’s bad news for Obama administration officials. On November 22, Ohr told agents that “reporting on Trump’s ties to Russia were going to the [Hillary] Clinton campaign, Jon Winer at the U.S. State Department and the FBI.” At the time, Winer was serving as a senior aide to then-Secretary of State John Kerry.
Tying it all together
The documents provide more evidence to confirm what Republicans have long alleged — that the Obama administration was involved in the partisan targeting of Donald Trump. Fox News host Sean Hannity commented on Thursday:
Without any question or ambiguity at all, these 302s show that the FBI, Fusion GPS, who was working on behalf of the Clinton campaign, she was paying for it, Christopher Steele, the Obama State Department, the Obama DOJ, all of them working together to dig up dirt on all things Donald Trump before and after the election.
Ohr, Fusion GPS, Steele, Clinton
Ohr worked to distribute anti-Trump material that was contained within the “Steele Dossier” — a body of salacious and unverified allegations that former British spy Christopher Steele had purportedly compiled from unknown Russian sources.
While Steele asserted that the Trump campaign had colluded with the Russian government to win the election, a two-year investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller produced no evidence that any such collusion occurred.
Steele had compiled the dossier at the behest of the research firm Fusion GPS, which had itself been contracted by the Clinton campaign to gather dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump. Ohr’s wife Nellie was employed by the company, a fact that he failed to disclose and which lead to his removal in 2017. He was later reassigned and given a raise.
Ohr also said Steele was “desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being the U.S. President.” Steele’s work was ultimately used by the FBI in obtaining warrants to spy on Trump campaign, although FISA courts were never informed of its dubious origins.
“Unprecedented and irregular effort”
The documents were obtained by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton put out a statement upon their release.
“These new Bruce Ohr FBI 302s show an unprecedented and irregular effort by the FBI, DOJ, and State Department to dig up dirt on President Trump using the conflicted Bruce Ohr, his wife, and the Clinton/DNC spies at Fusion GPS,” Fitton stated.
“The FISA courts weren’t informed of this corrupted process when they were asked to approve and reapprove extraordinary spy warrants targeting President Trump,” he added.
Top Obama admin officials implicated
This isn’t the only dubious behavior on Ohr’s part; he admitted in his Congressional testimony to have met and communicated with disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok. Strzok and his lover, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, exchanged numerous anti-Trump text messages, including one in which Strzok promised to “stop” Trump from becoming president.
This information further confirms that top Obama officials used unethical and illegal means to target the Trump campaign. How far up the wrongdoing went remains to be seen.
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