A Justice Department official with ties to Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm behind the controversial Trump dossier, is expected to be interviewed Monday by the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to a source with knowledge of the interview.
Bruce Ohr had previously served in the deputy attorney general’s office, but according to a source familiar with the situation, was demoted amid the discovery of certain meetings with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson and Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer who assembled the dossier.
Earlier this week, Simpson disclosed in an unrelated court filing that Ohr’s wife, Nellie, worked for Fusion on “research and analysis of Mr. Trump,” and that Simpson met with Bruce Ohr, “at his request, after the November 2016 election to discuss our findings regarding Russia and the election.”
After Fox first reported the Ohrs’ connections to Fusion, Jay Sekulow, President Donald Trump’s lawyer, told CNN that a second special counsel should be appointed to investigate.
Congressional investigators on the House Intelligence Committee have requested to interview Ohr as well.
But Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that Ohr had “no role” in the Russia investigation, batting away calls for a second special counsel where there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
While he has been stripped of his position within the deputy attorney general’s office, Ohr remains head of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces.