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A4 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 29 august 2018

Who is Bruce Ohr? Justice official has attracted GOP ire

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Peter Strzok, the recently
and ERIC TUCKER fired FBI agent who led
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bruce the Russia investigation,
Ohr was a relatively anon- told Congress last month
ymous lawyer at the Jus- that Ohr provided the FBI
tice Department for more with "material that I believe
than 25 years. But he's now originated from Mr. Steele,"
caught up in a Republican though he said he never
maelstrom of criticism to- personally received infor-
ward the department, with mation from Ohr. Strzok said
some of President Donald he met with Ohr as many as
Trump's allies implying that five times in late 2016 and
he helped conspire against early 2017.
Trump's election. The dossier also was not the
Two GOP-led House com- linchpin of the FBI's investi-
mittees are interviewing gation into potential coor-
Ohr behind closed doors dination between Russia
Tuesday as part of an in- and the Trump campaign.
vestigation into decisions That investigation had be-
made by the department gun months before the bu-
in 2016. They are interest- reau received those files in
ed in Ohr — who has also September 2016, and was
been the subject of Trump's triggered by information
angry tweets — because of about George Papado-
his relationship with Chris- poulos, a Trump campaign
topher Steele, the former Justice Department official, Bruce G. Ohr, center, arrives for a closed hearing of the House Judi- aide who told a profes-
British spy whose opposition ciary and House Oversight committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018. sor the Russians possessed
research on Trump's Russia Associated Press "dirt" on Clinton in the form
ties was compiled into a of emails. Strzok also said it
dossier and turned over to drug trafficking cases. ganized crime and forging information that Steele had was "not Mr. Ohr who pro-
the FBI. Colleagues and associates a friendly relationship that accumulated. vided the initial documents
At least seven Republican describe Ohr as a mild- persisted over the years. "And so Chris suggested I that I became aware of in
House members traveled mannered, affable, steady Though Ohr did not handle give some information to mid-September."
to Washington for the inter- presence in a department national security or coun- Bruce, give him the back- Nevertheless, Republicans
view, which is being held where turnover and transi- terintelligence work in the ground to all this. And we have suggested the dossier
during the House's August tion are common. deputy attorney general's eventually met at a cof- created a politically taint-
recess. No Democratic "I definitely remember him office, he nonetheless be- fee shop, and I told him the ed pretext for the investiga-
lawmakers appeared to at- to be a sort of quiet, soft- came a point of contact for story," said Glenn Simpson, tion. Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan,
tend, though staffers are in spoken, very warm and Steele to share information who helped start the firm. a Republican who has
the room. humble kind of a guy," said with in the months leading Aside from their own per- led criticism of the Justice
A look at Bruce Ohr and Evan Barr, who overlapped up to the 2016 presidential sonal connection, Ohr's Department and the FBI,
why Republicans are talk- with him in the U.S. Attor- election. Ohr passed along wife, Nellie, was working at called Strzok's revelation in
ing to him: ney's Office in New York. tidbits he learned to the FBI, Fusion GPS — a connection the hearing "amazing."
A SEASONED OFFICIAL "He was widely respected which was conducting its Trump and his allies have The interviews have been
A Harvard-educated law- in the office." own investigation. seized on as they allege part of a larger campaign
yer who was a federal pros- ___ The co-founder of Fusion anti-Trump bias in the de- to question special counsel
ecutor in Manhattan in the RELATIONSHIP WITH A FOR- GPS, the political research partment. Robert Mueller's investiga-
1990s, Ohr later oversaw MER SPY firm that hired Steele for the During breaks from the in- tion into Russian election
the Justice Department's It's Ohr's relationship with investigation, told House terview, several of the GOP interference and poten-
organized crime and rack- Steele that has given fod- lawmakers in a closed- lawmakers said Ohr's testi- tial coordination with the
eteering section and, at der to Republican critics in door meeting last year that mony differed from Simp- Trump campaign. Republi-
the time of the presidential Congress and raised con- he also met with Ohr at son's and shed new light can Rep. Matt Goetz, one
election, was a high-rank- cerns that he was operat- Steele's behest amid what on the credibility of the of the Republicans who at-
ing official in the deputy at- ing outside his job descrip- he said was anxiety that dossier. But they would not tended the interview, said
torney general's office with tion. federal investigators were give details. that, so far, Ohr's interview
oversight of a program that The two had met a decade not taking seriously enough ___ and others have shown an
doles out grants to federal earlier, bonding over a mu- the threat of Russian elec- THE BEGINNING OF AN IN- "excessive reliance" on the
prosecutors for complex tual interest in Russian or- tion interference and the VESTIGATION dossier.q