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Attorney General Hasn’t Responded To Request For Information On Conflicted FBI Agents Investigating Russia Collusion

   DailyWire.com

The deadline has passed for Attorney General William Barr to respond to a request for information regarding two FBI agents who appear to have had conflicts of interest while serving on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia collusion investigation. So far, Barr has not responded to the request, a source told The Daily Wire.

The request, from members of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, asked for information on whether Andrew Weissmann and Zainab Ahmad disclosed that they had received information from Department of Justice (DOJ) official Bruce Ohr regarding the Russia investigation. Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Mark Meadows (R-NC) sent the letter to Barr on March 1, giving him until March 15 to respond. He has not.

When the letter was sent, Jordan and Meadows revealed that Weissmann and Ahmad had communicated with Ohr about the dossier compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele prior to President Donald Trump’s election and prior to their appointment to the special counsel. Ohr also testified that he told the pair and others about the research conducted by Fusion GPS and its founder Glenn Simpson:

Former Rep. Trey Gowdy: Who at the Department knew that you were talking to Chris Steele and Glenn Simpson?

Ohr: I spoke with some people in the Criminal Division, other career officials who dealt with some of these matters. So –

Gowdy: Any of them have names?

Ohr: Yes. So, I was about to tell you. One of them Bruce Swartz, who is the Counselor for International Affairs in the Criminal Division; a person who was working with him at the time, working on similar matters in the Criminal Division was Zainab Ahmad; and a third person who was working on some – some of these matters I believe was Andrew Weissman.

“This development raises questions about the impartiality and independence of Weissmann and Ahmad as senior members of the Special Counsel’s investigation,” the congressmen wrote. “We write to determine what steps both Weissmann and Ahmad took to apprise Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III and the Justice Department of their contacts with Ohr and the substance of those meetings before their assignment to the Special Counsel’s Office.”

Jordan and Meadows then explain that the special counsel should be appointed after an attorney general determines a DOJ investigation “would present a conflict of interest for the Department.” With Weismann and Ahmad, both officials at the DOJ, a conflict of interest appeared to be present.

The special counsel already had known issues within its ranks, as fired FBI agent Peter Strzok was a member, as was his mistress, Lisa Page, briefly. Weissman and Ahmad were senior members of the counsel.

Just last week — the day before the deadline for Barr to respond — it was reported that Weissmann would be leaving the counsel. He was a top prosecutor for the investigation, and the apparent “architect” of the case against former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

Jordan and Meadows suggested in their letter that “Weissmann and Ahmad may not be independent,” and asked Barr to provide evidence the pair disclosed their relationship with Ohr:

1. Identify all actions taken by Weissmann and Ahmad, including disclosures, to apprise the Department or the Special Counsel’s Office of their role in the events Bruce Ohr testified to about supplying the FBI with information relating to the Trump campaign;

2. Explain all actions taken by Weissmann and Ahmad after learning Steele, Simpson, and [Bruce Ohr’s wife] Nellie Ohr were providing Bruce Ohr information for the purpose of relaying it to the FBI;

3. Provide all documents and communications referring or relating to disclosures made by Weissmann and Ahmad as part of their appointment to the Special Counsel’s Office; and

4. Provide all documents and communications related to the process that the Department used to evaluate prosecutors’ and investigators’ independence to serve in the Special Counsel’s Office.

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