After it has been revealed that a senior Department of Justice official met and had close ties to the opposition research firm and British spy behind a controversial anti-Trump dossier, President Donald Trump’s allies called for a special counsel investigation into the department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, The Hill reports.
Bruce Ohr held two positions at DOJ, but last week he was demoted and Fox News reported that there was a possibility the reason for that is that evidence collected by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence indicates that during 2016 campaign Ohr met Christopher Steele, a former British spy who authored the anti-Trump dossier and Fusion founder Glenn Simpson. Ohr’s wife worked for Fusion during last year’s campaign.
All of this comes at a time when conservatives are questioning the credibility of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Simpson and Steele had key roles in the making of the opposition research memo, which was paid for in part by Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. The memo also might have been used by the FBI as part of the investigation into whether Trump campaign officials had contacts with Russians.
“Every week, we find additional information that would suggest the investigation into the dossier and how it was used was conducted with a plethora of conflict of interest issues. Our confidence in the independence of the [special counsel] investigation has weakened, not strengthened, as details emerge,” House Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows said.
The Justice Department stated that Ohr has been cleared to testify before Congress after he has been reassigned.
“This is stunning. It gives me grave concern about the integrity of the senior officials at the Department and FBI were doing during the summer of 2016,” former Attorney General Bill Barr, who worked under President George H.W. Bush, said.
Trump’s allies are now demanding a new special counsel investigation into, as they say, partisan conflicts of interest at the FBI and DOJ that they believe pit the federal government against Trump and his campaign.
“The Department of Justice and FBI cannot ignore the multiple problems that have been created by these obvious conflicts of interest. These new revelations require the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigates,” Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow said.
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