Americans were disgusted by yesterday’s Peter Strzok hearings. Strzok was dripping with hatred and contempt for the members of Congress interrogating him. But FBI legal advisors forced him to answer some questions, and those were bricks of gold at the bottom of the manure pile of his answers and evasions. In the first, Strzok admitted that Bruce Ohr introduced the infamous Steele dossier to the FBI. In the second, he revealed that Robert Mueller never asked him about the texts showing his bias against President Trump.
The Manure Pile
Strzok’s attitude confirmed that some senior leaders at the FBI saw themselves as above the law. His refusal to answer any questions about the status of any open investigation—unless it suited his purpose—gave the lie to his protestations of professionalism. He made it very clear in words, facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language that he does not believe Republican members of Congress have a legitimate right to question him.
The fawning of some other members did not distinguish them. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) told Strzok that he would like to give him a Purple Heart for being “wounded” by congressional oversight. Cohen’s remark provoked immediate revulsion among American veterans, who are keenly aware of the battlefield sacrifices that earn those medals.
Gold Brick #1: Bruce and Nellie Ohr
The most important revelation in the Strzok hearings was his admission that Bruce Ohr was the FBI/DOJ entry point for the infamous Steele dossier. Strzok said the FBI legal counsel directed him to answer the question that way.
Ohr was the Associate Deputy Attorney General. His wife, Nellie Ohr, was a paid researcher at Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that hired Christopher Steele to write the dossier. Most experienced observers have assumed the Ohr connection, but it is an important legal step to get the admission officially on the record.
Nellie Ohr’s employer, Fusion GPS, was hired by the Perkins, Coie law firm to produce a dossier on connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Perkins, Coie had been contracted by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee to hire Fusion GPS for that purpose.
In the dark world of political and intelligence operations, the Perkins, Coie role in that transaction is known as a “cutout.” The purpose of hiring an investigative firm via a law firm is to make the transaction non-transparent. Under normal circumstances, nobody will penetrate attorney-client privilege on one end, or attorney-contractor privilege on the other. The connection between Hillary and the Steele dossier was meant to be kept secret.
Fusion GPS could have had many reasons to hire Nellie Ohr. She is a bona fide investigative reporter with years of experience. But it requires enormous naïveté, and inexperience in the ways of Washington or any other center of power, to believe that she was not hired for her personal access to the top level of the Justice Department.
Proving the role of the Ohrs confirms what radio host Mark Levin said months ago. Levin, a former chief of staff at the Justice Department, said Hillary Clinton managed to get her paid opposition research adopted by the nation’s top law enforcement body. It was a brilliant, and deeply dishonest, operation aimed to utterly destroy her political opponent and guarantee her a path to the presidency. No wonder she never bothered to campaign in Wisconsin!
Gold Brick #2: Mueller’s Lack of Curiosity
Strzok also said in a moment of anger that Special Counsel Robert Mueller never asked him about the content of his messages. He was arguing that he was not biased, in spite of the vitriolic bias he displayed in 55,000 private messages. To bolster his case, he argued that he was not dismissed from the collusion investigation for bias, but for the appearance of it.
Mueller’s lack of interest in the depth and extent of Strzok’s lack of impartiality is striking. It was Strzok that interviewed Gen. Flynn, and forced him to become a cooperating witness against the President. It was Strzok who interviewed many of the minor figures on the margins of the Trump campaign, on whose actions Mueller seems to be building his case.
When Mueller found that Strzok and his mistress, Lisa Page, were compromised in their attitudes toward Trump, merely dismissing them was insufficient. He should have interviewed them to find out how far their bias reached, so he could make an informed judgment about whether it had affected their work. Their bias threatened the integrity of his mission, and his incuriosity leaves a stain on his investigation.
Two bricks of gold under a pile of manure? Well worth the digging and the stink.
