Bruce Ohr said Christopher Steele was worried about Comey testimony, FBI notes show
by Daniel Chaitin & Jerry Dunleavy | August 08, 2019 11:37 PM
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/bruce-ohr-said-christopher-steele-was-worried-about-comey-testimony-fbi-notes-show
British ex-spy Christopher Steele was worried about what FBI Director James Comey might say in testimony to Congress, according to newly released FBI documents.
The author of the anti-Trump dossier was particularly concerned with what Sen. Chuck Grassley could ask during a hearing on May 3, 2017, Justice Department official Bruce Ohr told FBI agents a week later.
"Steele had been worried about Director Comey’s upcoming testimony to Congress, especially his response to questions that would be raised by (Sen.) Grassley," according to the FBI's notes from a May 10, 2017 interview with Ohr, who had spoken to Steele the day of the hearing.
Just what Steele was concerned about is redacted, but the notes said ultimately Steele was “happy with Director Comey’s response.”
The Justice Department released the heavily redacted notes from a dozen FBI interviews with Ohr, the DOJ official who met with Steele numerous times, on Thursday as part of a FREEDOM! of Information Act lawsuit from conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch.
Comey's hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which took place just before he was fired by President Trump, focused on the Clinton email investigation.
Grassley, who was chairman of the panel at the time, asked Comey several questions about the FBI's relationship with Steele, including whether the FBI had interactions with Steele about Trump's ties to Russia before the bureau launched its counterintelligence inquiry in July 2016. The Iowa Republican also asked Comey if the FBI ever paid Steele.
Comey, noting that he briefed lawmakers on this issue, stressed that he could not provide an answer in that setting but was willing to discuss more in private.
Steele's dossier, which contained claims about Trump's ties to Russia, was used by the FBI to obtain surveillance warrants against onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page beginning in October 2016.
Ohr told congressional investigators last year that Steele was desperate for Trump to lose in 2016, but neither Steele's Democratic benefactors nor his animus against Trump were disclosed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in redacted FISA warrant documents that have been released.
Earlier this year Trump gave Attorney General William Barr "full and complete authority to declassify information" related to the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, and Barr selected U.S. Attorney John Durham to lead the review. Barr has said he is working closely with DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who launched an inquiry in March 2018 into alleged abuse of the FISA Court process, including the FBI’s use of the Steele dossier. Horowitz’s report is expected after Labor Day.