DOJ reocrds show timeline of Fusion GPS/Steele began in 2015

FPI / August 12, 2020

By Judicial Watch

Judicial Watch has released 168 pages of records from the U.S. Department of Justice including a handwritten timeline of meetings going back to 2015 connected to Peter Strzok and Lisa Page and Christopher Steele/Fusion GPS, as well as a list of records the DOJ sent to Congress related to the investigation into FISA warrants involving the Clinton-funded dossier.

The records also include a letter from Congress demanding an investigation into Hillary Clinton, James Comey and others, as well as a scathing email from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on the lack of cooperation from the DOJ/FBI.

“These new documents further demonstrate that the Obama FBI and DOJ had a close, working relationship with Fusion GPS/Christopher Steele,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These documents also show the agencies had zero interest in telling Congress and the American people about their role in Obamagate.”

Judicial Watch obtained the records through an August 2018 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against the DOJ after it failed to respond to a May 29, 2018, FOIA request for:

• All records from the Office of the Deputy Attorney General relating to Fusion GPS, Nellie Ohr and/or British national Christopher Steele, including but not limited to all records of communications about and with Fusion GPS officials, Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele.
• All records from the office of former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce G. Ohr relating to Fusion GPS, Nellie Ohr and/or British national Christopher Steele, including but not limited to all records of communications (including those of former Associate Deputy Attorney General Ohr) about and with Fusion GPS officials, Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele.
• All records from the office of the Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force relating to Fusion GPS, Nellie Ohr and/or British national Christopher Steele, including but not limited to all records of communications (including those of former Organized Crime Task Force Director Bruce Ohr) about and with Fusion GPS officials, Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele.

The newly released records include a handwritten note with the heading “FBI: 11/21, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok DAD, [Redacted] SSA”, and an attached page with the heading, “Partial Chron” and the following list:

2007 Met 1st time London
2008 Jun met UK
[Redacted]
11/21/2014 Met
2/10/2015 Call
[Redacted]
10/2/2015 Met
7/7/2016 Call
7/30/2016 Meeting in DC
[8/22/2016 Simpson DC]
9/23/2016 Met in DC
10/18/2016 Call
10/19/2016 Call

A heavily redacted six-page record dated June 28, 2018, titled, “Summary of High Profile Congressional Requests” which has the corresponding headings, “Congressional Request”, and “Department’s Accommodation” lists various documents requested by Congress and DOJ’s response to each. The documents that the DOJ provided to a Congressional Request titled, “Reliance on Dossier for FISA Application included the following:”

• The FISA application and three renewals from a FISA warrant obtained, “where information provided by Mr. Steele was utilized”
• An electronic communication that, “describes the predicate for the counterintelligence investigation, the date the investigation began, and the name of the authorizing official.”“A Confidential Human Source validation report”
• “A summary of a defensive briefing provided to the Trump Campaign by the FBI”
• “A timeline of payments to the Confidential Human Source.”

On April 20, 2018, Deputy Attorney General Scott Schools forwarded a letter from then-Rep. Ron DeSantis, Florida Republican, and other members of Congress demanding a criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and former Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente to DOJ Acting Assistant Attorney General John Cronan, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jessie Liu, DOJ IG Michael Horowitz and FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich.

The letter was initially sent to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, FBI Director Christopher Wray and U.S. Attorney John Huber.

On Sept. 22, 2017, Damon Nelson, Staff Director for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence sent an email to Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Stephen Boyd, copying other senior FBI and DOJ officials saying:

"The rest of the IC (Intelligence Community) has found a way to provide the committee access to all the docs it has requested for the investigation – including raw intelligence. I find it interesting that the FBI and Justice are taking a different approach. The information is critical to the House’s investigation and access to the raw documents are needed to complete the investigation (of Russian interference in the U.S. election)."

This is part of Judicial Watch’s ongoing investigation into Nellie and Bruce Ohr’s involvement with Fusion GPS and the Clinton-funded dossier.

Previous document releases include Russia-related communications between Nellie Ohr and high-ranking DOJ official Lisa Holtyn; a conversation between former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Kathleen Kavalec and Bruce Ohr discussing the targeting of Donald Trump with Steele dossier material; Nellie Ohr telling Bruce Ohr that she was deleting emails sent from his Department of Justice account; and Bruce Ohr sending an email to his lawyer before his intelligence committee testimony about “possible ethics concerns.”

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