Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) discussed the release of new text messages between ex-FBI employee Peter Strzok and Lisa Page which reveal that others in the bureau were leaking information. In an interview with FOX Business Network on Thursday, Jordan said the text messages reveal to him that Bruce Ohr was needed because having a Department of Justice official back the dossier gave "weight to the lie."



Jordan said the FBI and DOJ used "crushing power of the state to take an opposition research document, the dossier, dress it all up, take it to secret court, and get a warrant to spy on felony American citizen so they can in essence spy on the Trump campaign, that is as wrong as it gets."





HEATHER MACDONALD, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: Let us bring in Republican Ohio representative, he is House Oversight Committee member, he is Congressman Jim Jordan. Great to see you, sir. What is your reaction to the text-messages?







REP JIM JORDAN (R-OH): Well, it just confirms what we thought there was this sort of an extensive leaking strategy they had because -- look it goes to basic human nature, if you have a lie, the dossier was a lie -- if you have a lie that you want people to believe, the more folks you have talking about it the more likely they will believe the lie, that was the strategy. I mean, they were having all kinds of folks talk about the dossier, for example, why in a world did they he need Bruce Ohr at Justice Department to funnel the dossier to FBI. The FBI was dealing directly with Christopher Steele, the guy who wrote it. Because the reason if you have a top official at Justice Department, it gives weight to the lie, and weight to what you are trying to get people to buy into, that is why they needed Bruce Ohr. So, just part of the overall strategy, again, this shows how wrong this was, this behavior that took place at the highest levels of the FBI.



MACDONALD: You know, another text appears to show Peter Strzok discussing a quote, media leak strategy. You know, Congressman, Strzok's attorney said that the take on that is wrong. It refers to instead to a Justice Department push to stop media leaks. That was Strzok was texting about. What do you believe? Do you believe what he says?



JORDAN: That is laugh -- I mean, it does not even come close to passing the smell test, Inspector General Horowitz, when he did this the study of the Clinton investigation, he had a graph in there 18 different officials at FBI and DOJ were talking with one reporter, 18 different people, so there was this extensive effort to get this information out to the press. There is no way it was that they were talking about oh, stopping the leaks? No, this part of the game they play, and again this underscores how bad this was, they use crushing power of the state to take an opposition research document, the dossier, dress it all up, take it to secret court, and get a warrant to spy on felony American citizen so they can in essence spy on the Trump campaign, that is as wrong as it gets.



MACDONALD: Yes. I mean, Mr. Steele and Mr. James Comey said it unverifiable about that dossier. But you know, to your point, Congressman, there are a lot of texts between Mr. Strzok and Lisa Page, they were talking about coverage of probe, Washington Post, "New York Times," I mean, they spent a lot of time also before the election trying to track down the address of a "New York Times" reporter Matt Aputso, who was reporting on Russia probe, and they are also trying to track down his spouse's job and where she was as well. Your reaction to that?



JORDAN: Why not just do your job, quit worrying about public relations, quit worrying about what is said in press, why not just do your job, but if you are trying to manufacture something, if you are trying to do what we now know took place, where they did this. The top people of FBI who ran the Clinton investigation, and ran Trump-Russia investigation, were using these dossier that they knew was not credible, wasn’t corroborated, wasn’t validated to get a warrant to spy on the other campaign, forget all that, just focus on your job, this is the part I think is so troubling to me and so many Americans.



MACDONALD: Listen, you support the Mueller probe, right? To get to bottom of the Russia interference.



JORDAN: Time to be done.



MACDONALD: I understand what you are saying. I hear that. You know, there is a concerted push to get Mueller to get the probe done. To see what happened with Russia and anything that happened with the Trump campaign, just get it done, and I think that American people want that, what do you say to that? Final word.



JORDAN: Of course, they want it done, two days not one bit of evidence, to show any type of coordination between Trump campaign and Russia to impact the election, but we do know that the Clinton campaign hired (inaudible) who hired Fusion GPS, who hired Christopher Steele, a foreign agent to write dossier to then use that dossier to go impact the election, we do know all that, but no, that is not the story, we're still focused on Trump-Russia. That is why this thing needs to be over with a long time ago.



MACDONALD: Well, we just want truth. The American people wants the truth and the facts. Congressman, thank you so much for coming in, sir.



JORDAN: You bet.