Judicial Watch announced Monday it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for communications between two of the pivotal players in the Deep State, anti-Trump collusion – former FBI official Peter Strzok and Justice Department official Bruce Ohr (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:19-cv-01082)).
The suit was filed after Judicial Watch submitted two similar July 20, 2018, FOIA requests to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a component of the Justice Department. The FBI failed to respond, while the Justice Department claimed to find no records of communications between Strzok and Ohr. The lawsuit seeks:
All records of communication between FBI official Peter Strzok and, Bruce Ohr, in either his role as Associate Deputy Attorney General or Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, including but not limited to emails (whether on .gov or non-.gov email accounts, and whether using their real names or aliases), text messages, encrypted app messages and/or instant chats.
The time frame for the requested records is January 2016 to July 20, 2018.
Judicial Watch is challenging the Justice Department’s extraordinary claim that there are no records of communications between Strzok and Ohr in light of the preeminent role both individuals played in the Deep State effort to undermine the Trump campaign and administration. In addition, Ohr himself testified before Congress that he did, in fact, meet and communicate with Strzok.
On April 25, Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) submitted a letter to Attorney General William Barr about text messages from Strzok to former FBI lawyer Lisa Page “that may show potential attempts by the FBI to conduct surveillance of President-elect Trump’s transition team.”
“We know that Peter Strzok was deeply involved in both running the Hillary server investigation cover-up by the FBI and in creating the counterintelligence ‘investigation’ of false claims of Trump-Russian collusion,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It’s doubtful that Ohr’s meetings with Strzok over a matter of national importance happened without a scrap of communication. It’s past time the Justice Department began acting in good faith, stop the game-playing, abide by the law and produce the documents.”
President Trump recently said he would declassify certain records related to the Russia investigation.
Judicial Watch recently released heavily redacted records from the DOJ that reveal Bruce Ohr remained in regular contact with former British spy and Fusion GPS contractor Christopher Steele after Steele was terminated by the FBI in November 2016 for revealing to the media his position as an FBI confidential informant.
Author: Judicial Watch
Judicial Watch, Inc., a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation, promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law. Through its educational endeavors, Judicial Watch advocates high standards of ethics and morality in our nation’s public life and seeks to ensure that political and judicial officials do not abuse the powers entrusted to them by the American people. Judicial Watch fulfills its educational mission through litigation, investigations, and public outreach. Visit Judicial Watch at https://www.judicialwatch.org/
