The Department of Justice has demoted a top official over his contacts with the former British spy who authored the Trump dossier as well as with Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commissioned the salacious document.
Fox News reports that Bruce G. Ohr was removed from his position as associate deputy attorney general on Wednesday. Ohr, who worked in close proximity to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, had contacts last year with dossier author Christopher Steele as well as with Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of Fusion GPS.
A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Caller that Ohr was no longer working in the office of the deputy attorney general.
According to Fox News, Ohr met Steele at some point during the presidential campaign. He met Simpson around Thanksgiving 2016. During that coffee meeting, Simpson and Ohr reportedly discussed the dossier, the Trump investigation and Simpson’s frustration with Trump’s electoral victory.
Ohr’s demotion is the second major personnel change known so far in the Russia investigation. It was reported on Saturday that former counterintelligence official Peter Strzok was removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia team after the Department of Justice’s inspector general found that he exchanged anti-Trump and pro-Clinton text messages with FBI lawyer Lisa Page.
It is not known what comments Strzok made in those text messages. He was on the ground floor of the Russia investigation, having been tapped in July 2016 to lead the FBI’s investigation into possible campaign collusion. He was also a central figure in the Clinton email investigation.
It is also not known why Ohr’s contacts with Steele and Simpson warranted his demotion. According to Fox News, it is believed that Ohr was put in touch with Simpson through Steele. Ohr had known Steele since 2006, when the dossier author still worked as a spy for MI6.
The House Intelligence Committee is preparing to subpoena Ohr regarding his contacts with Fusion GPS.
“The Committee will issue a subpoena to Bruce Ohr for information on this matter,” California Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the committee, said in a statement.
Nunes also said that the Justice Department “should have provided the committee with information on contacts that DOJ official Bruce Ohr had with Fusion GPS representatives and Christopher Steele.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller.