Ohr: The FBI Knew ... Before the Fact

Kimberley A. Strassel of The Wall Street Journal has been, along with Andrew C. McCarthy of the National Review, my go-to starting lineup in coverage of the Steele dossier, Mueller witch hunt, and DOJ/FBI corruption saga. Today she summarizes the leaked closed-door testimony of Bruce Ohr to Congress.

Congressional sources tell me that Mr. Ohr revealed Tuesday that he verbally warned the FBI that its source had a credibility problem, alerting the bureau to Mr. Steele’s (anti-Trump) leanings and motives. He also informed the bureau that Mrs. Ohr was working for Fusion and contributing to the dossier project.

Mr. Ohr said, moreover, that he delivered this information before the FBI’s first application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a warrant against Trump aide Carter Page, in October 2016. Yet the FBI made no mention of this warning in the application, instead characterizing Mr. Steele as a “reliable” source. Nor does the application note that a senior Justice Department official’s spouse was contributing to the dossier and benefiting financially from a document the FBI was using in an investigation. That matters both because the FBI failed to flag the enormous conflict and because Mr. Steele’s work product potentially wasn’t entirely his own.

No reference to Mr. Ohr—direct or cloaked—can be found in any of the four applications for Page warrants, according to those who have seen them.

“Before yesterday, we thought the FBI and DOJ had not disclosed material facts they were aware of in the FISA application. If Bruce Ohr testified truthfully, we now know that to be the case,” Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas tweeted Wednesday.

Whereas if Ohr did not testify truthfully, he is a felon. Somewhere the ghost of J. Edgar Hoover is turning over in his unquiet grave. The two most recent former FBI Directors - James Comey and Robert Mueller - should take the hit for this malfeasance, if it can be proven.