Politics

Trump Calls Dossier Author Christopher Steele A ‘Lowlife,’ Says AG Sessions Is ‘Scared Stiff’

Official portrait of President Donald J. Trump, Friday, October 6, 2017. (Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead)

President Trump leveled a multi-front attack on Saturday against dossier author Christopher Steele, the media, Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

“The big story that the Fake News Media refuses to report is lowlife Christopher Steele’s many meetings with Deputy A.G. Bruce Ohr and his beautiful wife, Nelly [sic],” Trump tweeted.

The big story that the Fake News Media refuses to report is lowlife Christopher Steele’s many meetings with Deputy A.G. Bruce Ohr and his beautiful wife, Nelly. It was Fusion GPS that hired Steele to write the phony & discredited Dossier, paid for by Crooked Hillary & the DNC….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2018

Trump followed that tweet up with one accusing Sessions of being “scared stiff” and “Missing in Action” because Ohr remains employed at the Justice Department.

….Do you believe Nelly worked for Fusion and her husband STILL WORKS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF “JUSTICE.” I have never seen anything so Rigged in my life. Our A.G. is scared stiff and Missing in Action. It is all starting to be revealed – not pretty. IG Report soon? Witch Hunt!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2018

A series of reports published in The Hill and The Washington Examiner this week revealed that Ohr and Steele exchanged emails and text messages before and after the 2016 presidential election. Ohr also briefed the FBI on 12 separate occasions about his interactions with Steele, a former MI6 official.

Ohr provided the interviews after the FBI had cut ties with Steele because of unauthorized disclosures he gave to the media prior to the election.

Ohr’s wife, a Russia expert named Nellie, worked for Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that hired Steele to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia. Ohr served as assistant deputy attorney general until December, when he was demoted.

As Trump noted in his tweet, Fusion GPS was working on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC to dig up dirt on Trump.

Steele’s dossier, which accuses the Trump campaign of colluding with Russia, was used by the FBI to obtain four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Republican lawmakers have said that the bureau relied on the dossier even though its allegations had not been verified.

Emails and text messages published this week show that in addition to discussing the Russia investigation, Steele lobbied Ohr on behalf of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. Beginning in January 2016, Steele began talking with Ohr about the status of Deripaska’s American visa status. The State Department blocked the billionaire from traveling to the U.S. in 2006 because of suspected ties to the Russian mafia.

“As far as I’m concerned, this is good news all round although as before, it would be helpful if you could monitor it and let me know if any complications arise,” Steele wrote to Ohr in a Feb. 8, 2016 email.

Ohr said that “to the extent I can I will keep an eye on the situation.”