Remember Bruce Ohr?

Bruce Ohr was, in 2016, the highest non-political appointee official in the DoJ. He also worked as an informant for the FBI without telling his superiors--hey, that's his story--and was a handler for Chris Steele. His wife Nellie was a ham radio enthusiast and, in her spare time, did Russia related oppo research against Trump and Trump family members for Glenn Simpson's Fusion GPS--all funded by the Clinton campaign, as laundered by Clinton lawyer and all around consigliere, Marc Elias.

Well, Bruce Ohr is still around and, after receiving several serious demotions, is still at DoJ. He also is still an important witness to all things Russia Hoax, and in that capacity he testified yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee--behind closed doors. There were no leaks and no announcements of what was said, but we know there would be many fascinating topics the GOP senators would want to discuss with Ohr. Ohr would, of course, have much to say about political bias at the FBI and DoJ, relations among those entities and Fusion GPS--stuff we've all heard about. Another topic of interest--and one for which Ohr was very specifically targeted by Michael Horowitz' OIG report--has to do with the fact that Ohr, while claiming not to have briefed his superiors on what he was doing on DoJ time, admitted to keeping subordinates like Andrew Weissmann and Zainab Ahmed (both later of Team Mueller fame) fully informed on the Russia Hoax in the second half of 2016. Horowitz pointedly stated in his report that, beyond Ohr's many other improper actions, Ohr had absolutely no reason for sharing any such information about a highly sensitive FBI investigation with persons who had no official need to know--not even remotely.

This appears to be another instance in which Durham has completed work on all aspects of his investigation that involve Ohr and for that reason Durham (and Barr) are now willing to make Ohr available as a witness to the Senate--under strict conditions, such as, no public testimony. Sidney Powell may have been alluding to this mode of operation on Durham's part in her interview with Jan Jekielek. Powell noted that only after every single Brady motion she made had been turned down by Sullivan did DoJ on its own begin to turn over portions of the material she had requested. Powell pointed out that she believed that some of the material lacked the usual government markings and stated that she believed that it had come to her via Durham's shop.

While I have no experience with such high stakes public corruption investigations of high DoJ or FBI officials as we see in the Durham investigation, my belief is that the reason that Ohr (and other officials who were key witnesses) has been kept on board has to do with the investigators maintaining tight control over him. That control would be lost if Ohr (or the others) left government employment. In other words, I'm suggesting that a deal was made with Ohr--full cooperation and continued employment as long as the investigation has a need for his cooperation. The fact that, unlike most other key figures in the Russia Hoax, Ohr remains employed at DoJ, is an indicator to me of how important his information and cooperation is to the Durham investigation.