Reps. Jerrold Nadler (pictured) and Elijah Cummings say Republican lawmakers who interviewed Ohr read aloud from emails and texts between Ohr and former British spy Christopher Steele, as well as Ohr's handwritten notes about his meetings with Steele. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images Dems accuse Republicans of misusing 'sensitive' documents during Ohr hearing

Republicans may have misused "law enforcement sensitive" documents in their closed-door interview with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr this week, two senior House Democrats charged Friday.

Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler of New York and Elijah Cummings of Maryland say Republican lawmakers who interviewed Ohr — part of a GOP-driven investigation into allegations of anti-Trump bias in the FBI and Justice Department — read aloud from emails and texts between Ohr and former British spy Christopher Steele, as well as Ohr's handwritten notes about his meetings with Steele.


But those documents were never produced to the panel leading the interview — a task force that includes members of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees. Rather, they appear to have been part of a batch of files requested by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes in March, the Democrats say.

"During Mr. Ohr's interview, the Republican members never introduced these documents into the official record, never marked them as exhibits, never explained how they obtained them, and never provided copies to Democratic staff participating in the interview," Nadler and Cummings wrote in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy. "We have serious concerns with these actions."

Sign up here for POLITICO Huddle A daily play-by-play of congressional news in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The two Democrats are seeking "an immediate bipartisan meeting" with the Justice Department to review "whether any ongoing investigations or human sources may have been compromised." The Justice Department marked documents it sent to the Intelligence Committee as "law enforcement sensitive," and Democrats say they want to know whether Republicans consulted with the Justice Department about disseminating them before deploying them in the Ohr interview.

A Democratic aide to the House Intelligence Committee, also known as HPSCI, indicated that any disclosure of committee materials had no formal approval, which is typically required before committees share proprietary information.

"That would be in violation of rules that are supposed to govern the handling and use of sensitive information provided to the Committee by executive branch agencies," the aide said. "No vote, which should precede any disclosure, has been taken in the Committee to share or release any such information."

Gowdy, who sits on all three committees — intelligence, judiciary and oversight — was not the source of the documents that other Republicans appeared to rely on, an aide said.

"As a member of HPSCI, Rep. Gowdy reviewed these documents when they were first produced to HPSCI in March," said spokeswoman Amanda Gonzalez. "He has never once shared these documents with a single individual outside of HPSCI. If members have concerns sensitive information was released, they should raise their concerns with HPSCI and/or the Ethics Committee."

Similarly, a House Judiciary Committee aide directed Nadler and Cummings to take up their issues with the intelligence Committee.

"Mr. Nadler and Mr. Cummings’ comments would be better addressed by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence," the aide said. "The documents they reference in their letter are not part of the Judiciary Committee’s records and our Committee certainly did not provide these documents to any Members."

Republicans have pointed to Ohr as a central figure in their inquiry about bias in federal law enforcement. Ohr, a senior DOJ official, became a conduit for Steele to steer information to the FBI in 2016, while Steele was employed by Fusion GPS to investigate then-candidate Donald Trump's international business dealings. The ex-spy's investigation produced what has become known as the Steele Dossier, an explosive set of allegations that describe an illicit plot by Trump and Russia to help Trump win the election. Trump has vehemently denied Steele's findings.

GOP investigators say Ohr — whose wife Nellie worked for Fusion GPS while Steele was compiling the dossier — pipelined the dossier material to the FBI, even though he had doubts about its credibility. That information was subsequently used by the FBI to obtain a surveillance warrant on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

In recent weeks, Trump himself has piled on Ohr, attacking him and his wife for their involvement in sharing the dossier with investigators. Democrats have countered that Republicans are deflecting from the growing legal scandals engulfing the president and seeking to undermine the investigations that have ultimately led to special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Nadler and Cummings — the top Democrats on the Judiciary and Oversight Committees, respectively — say Republicans also violated House rules by sharing the Ohr-related documents because they never provided copies to Democrats.

They also suggest Republicans appeared to be "cherry-picking" from the documents to create a "highly misleading narrative" about Ohr. They note that in one of Ohr's emails from Steele — which recently appeared in an opinion column in The Hill — Steele said he wanted to "informally and separately" discuss "our favorite business tycoon!"

Republican lawmakers in the interview, the Democrats say, suggested this was a reference to Trump. But Ohr, in his interview, refuted the claim, saying the reference was to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

