FISA Warrant | Victor Takacs

Judicial Watch filed suit to obtain notes taken by the FBI during and after interviews it had with Bruce Ohr during the Russia probe. The conservative legal group did so via a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) Request. On August 8th that request was granted. Under court order, the FBI acquiesced and released the 302s pertinent to its interviews of Bruce Ohr. A 302 is a report written by the FBI that summarizes interviews it conducts with witnesses. Bruce Ohr was the Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice during the time of the Russia probe. He has since been demoted but remains employed by the DOJ in another capacity.

Nelly Ohr, Bruce’s wife, worked for Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS was hired by the Hillary Clinton Campaign and the Democrat National Committee (DNC) to conduct opposition research on Donald Trump. Fusion GPS is the independent intelligence gathering firm that, in turn, hired Russia insider Christopher Steele to dig up dirt on Donald Trump and his supposed dealings with Russia. Christopher Steele is a former British MI-6 agent who was briefly on the payroll of the FBI until he was dismissed for leaking portions of his fake dossier to the media.

The dossier is an intelligence report, created by Steele himself, the Russian government, or a combination of both. Its contents consist of lies about the President and his dealings with Russia as well as fabricated falsehoods about his visits to Russia over the years. In the international intelligence community, Steele is widely known for his ties to the Kremlin. He is also known for his animus toward the President as well as his desire that Trump not become President and be ejected from said office should he win the election.

According to Judicial Watch, the Ohr 302s offer damning evidence of impropriety within the DOJ and FBI when it comes to the Russia probe. Bruce Ohr met with Russia insider Christopher Steele on a multitude of occasions for a solid six months after the FBI had dismissed him. So the question is why did Ohr continue to have contact with Steele even after the FBI got rid of him? Was the dismissal a decoy to distract from Ohr and Steele’s continuing contact, or did Ohr go rogue? Either way, the wrongdoing here must not be ignored.

In his May 2017 closed door testimony to congressional committees, Bruce Ohr talked about Steele being fearful of getting called to testify before Congress. Ohr’s testimony indicated the fact that Steele was worried about congressmen and women asking him about a certain dossier-related issue in particular. Unfortunately whatever the issue, it is redacted in the 302s.

F.I.S.A. Warrant & Subsequent Renewals to Surveil Trump Campaign & Trump Administration

Why is the Steele Dossier so important to the narrative of the Russia hoax? It was at the core of the evidence presented to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (F.I.S.A.) Court by the FBI to secure a warrant to spy on the Trump Campaign and the Trump Administration thereafter. The Ohr 302s make it abundantly clear that the FBI knew full well that the content of the Steele Dossier was never verified. Despite it being unverified, it was used on four separate occasions to convince FISA judges to issue and renew warrants for spying.

The 302s also show evidence that both Ohr, Comey, and others in the FBI were well aware of the fact that Russia insider Christopher Steele was extremely biased against Donald Trump. And still, FISA warrant renewal applications cited the dossier as leading evidence for surveillance of the Trump Administration. It’s appalling that a biased and discredited foreign person’s unverified opposition research secured a surveillance warrant. Furthermore, it is also appalling that such a warrant was used to spy on American citizens associated with Trump. To think that all of this led to more than two years of intense investigation of the President of the United States when none of it was even true. What a joke!