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Justice Department Releases Bruce Ohr Interview Notes

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Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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The Justice Department on Thursday released partially redacted transcripts of interviews Bruce Ohr conducted with the FBI after his contacts with Christopher Steele, the author of the infamous anti-Trump dossier.

Ohr, who served as associate deputy attorney general in the Justice Department, had numerous contacts with Steele during and after the 2016 election as part of an investigation into possible links between the Trump campaign and Russian government.

The transcripts released Thursday are FBI summaries of interviews Ohr conducted with the FBI following his interactions with Steele, a former British spy. (RELATED: DOJ Gave Bruce Ohr A $28,000 Bonus In 2016)

Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch sued the FBI for the Ohr records.

The FBI conducted its 12 interviews with Ohr from Nov. 22, 2016, through May 15, 2017.

Ohr told the FBI details of what information Steele provided from his investigation of Donald Trump’s possible ties to Russia.

Fusion GPS contractor Nellie Ohr arrives for a closed-door interview with investigators from the House Judiciary and Oversight committees in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Oct. 19, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Fusion GPS contractor Nellie Ohr arrives for a closed-door interview with investigators from the House Judiciary and Oversight committees in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Oct. 19, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Ohr said Steele told him in one conversation in September 2016 he was “desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being the U.S. President.”

Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm that was working for the Clinton campaign and DNC, hired Steele to investigate the Trump campaign. Ohr’s wife, a Russia expert named Nellie, worked as a contractor for Fusion GPS through September 2016. Bruce Ohr provided the bureau with notes of his wife’s work for Fusion GPS, according to the FBI notes.

Republican lawmakers have called on Trump to declassify and release the Ohr notes in hopes they would shed light on the FBI’s handling of the dossier.

The bureau relied heavily on Steele’s work to obtain wiretaps against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.

The special counsel’s investigation undercut the dossier’s core claim of a “well-developed conspiracy of co-operation” between the Trump campaign and Kremlin. The special counsel’s report said investigators could not establish that a conspiracy occurred.

Read the documents here:

Bruce Ohr 302s by Chuck Ross on Scribd

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